


Billowing Sails of Black, freedom is Mine

by xdestroying



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Anal Sex, Barebacking, Blood, Explicit Sexual Content, M/M, Oral Sex, Swearing, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 12:12:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 39,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8101990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xdestroying/pseuds/xdestroying
Summary: For years, Navy Captain Sakurai Sho has proudly commanded the course of the cargo ship, The Daylight, across the Asian Pacific, so when the stunning captain of a certain pirate ship offers him another life, Sho comes to question the difference between reality and illusion, leaving him confused as to what he really wants.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [akhikaru](https://archiveofourown.org/users/akhikaru/gifts).



> Written for the arashi_exchange 2016 for akhikaru.

The year is 1670.   
It is during the Golden Age of Piracy and The Daylight is heading straight towards the setting sun, its captain standing at the upper deck, hands behind him, back straight, head held high. He is scouting the horizon ahead of him, longing to see the shores of his country again.  
Soon. They just need to make it through the night. The night where there is no light but their own, and in these crucial hours, light is not something the captain will allow.  
Sakurai Sho has been commanding The Daylight for 5 years, working hard for himself to earn this position. It has been hard work, perseverance and the right contacts which have landed him here, on his way from India with a hull filled to the brim with treasures to the capital of Kyoto. His ship brings the finest of silks, colourful carpets and art. And then there are the jewels; the sapphires, the rubies, the ivory and the pearls.  
As captain of the fastest cargo ship in Asia, Sakurai Sho is responsible for the safety of this ballast. To his country, his people, his role is essential. Hired by the government, the Sakurai name itself shoulders a strong, spotless reputation, not only because of Sho, as the oldest son and heir, but because of the work his father has done, and his father before him. Intending to uphold that reputation, for 5 years, Sho has been controlling the path of The Daylight, never once being raided by pirates. Not only is Daylight fast, but several times, Sho’s cunning and intelligence has been proven, in the worst pinches or well ahead of time, always slipping between the fingers of even the shrewdest pirate. And Sho aims to maintain his hard-earned record. Today. Tomorrow. For years into the future. His family’s future.  
Only, thanks to his pride, he fails to consider the famous Remarkable. One of the most feared pirate ships stalking the waters of the Asian Pacific. And soon, he will come to stumble, to lose sight of what he thought was important to him when he finds himself head to head with the stoic captain of this particular crew of outlaws.

  
The year is 1670, and the era of piracy is flourishing.  
Thanks to the dying economy of Japan, more and more people are turning their backs on their home country, opting for swiftness on the waters, for stealing, for plundering, for freedom. With the choice of being trapped in a country heading towards its own end, working oneself to the bone for lords and a shogun who continues to make the wrong choices for the people, the pirates have chosen the riskier option. Their chance of escaping the rule of Japan is slimming every day, several having to face prison or the death penalty for their crimes. But, to some, the choice has been easy to make despite of it.  
The crew is bustling below him, excited for this particular chase, for the new possibilities they will face, should they succeed in their mission, should their captain once more enable them to succeed.  
This is their most ambitious plan to date, the captain recognizes, having planned the raid for months. He has had to. Chasing the fastest, the wisest – and the most dangerous – cargo ship on the Asian Pacific is no joke, and he knows they will most likely not make it through the encounter unharmed. He just hopes they will make it out on top.  
Without too many scratches on his precious Remarkable of course.  
In the dead of the night, they are hidden, closing in on The Daylight, and Matsumoto Jun’s eyes sparkle in the darkness, adrenaline shooting through his veins as fast as his ship breaks through the waters, foam and wind on the pirate’s face. With this haul, with the riches Sakurai can provide him with, he will be a free man. Forever.

*

It happens when the sun rises again. Just as that big, bright, golden orb casts the first streaks of light upon the still surface of the water, just when the night turns into day, and Sho yawns after a long night, that is when Sho hears a shout above him, the shout he has so been dreading.  
“Pirates!!”  
Instantly, Sho’s heartrate quickens, the adrenaline taking off, and he looks upward, towards the crow’s nest and the lookout seated there.  
“Port side!”  
And then his heart stops. But he has no choice but to turn his head, stride close to a run as he rushes to the railing of the quarterdeck, only to feel a lump in his throat.  
The ship is close. Too close. And she is shining so brightly that there is no mistaking who is chasing them.  
Remarkable’s hold and her three masts are the purest of white, beautifully maintained, her sails black as night as she thunders through the waters quickly, way too quickly.  
“All hands on deck! Hard to starboard!” Sho roars, one of the sailors stumbling towards the wheel to steer it where Sho commands.  
But he knows it is too late.  
Had the pirates approached from behind, from the stern, The Daylight could have easily out-sailed the other ship. Like this, Sho’s ship will waste time turning around, to flee in the other direction, Remarkable too close for comfort. Like this, they will get crushed from behind by Remarkable’s famous frontal cannons. Without even being able to fire back.  
Sho has to make a quick decision. One he has never thought he would have to make. Not like this, not in such a situation. He was unaware, he dropped his guard, he was too prideful, and now he and his crew are paying the price.  
“Belay that command, sailor!” He turns around, to stare the young man in the eye, and his voice darkens when he next says: “Full speed ahead.” Sho can hear how ominous he sounds, and the younger man knows too, the fear evident in his eyes. Then, “Where is Ninomiya?!”  
He looks around, a humming in his ears, panic around him. He needs Nino to calm it down, needs Nino to keep an eye on the crew. Shortly after his command, the small man comes running up to him, stopping to bend over for breath, “Aye, sir?” His voice is as unconcerned as always while he makes a show to make it seem like he just ran 50 miles.  
“Quartermaster, take over. I need to see Aiba-san.”  
And he leaves Ninomiya with that stern command, catching the way his second in command and best friend looks at him, notices that Sho is utterly serious. Knows what it means when he mentions their master gunner.  
“Understood, captain. At the ready, men! We have a pirate to blow up!”  
It is not often that Ninomiya raises his voice, but in a dire situation such as this, he does not mess around, his fun and games completely forgotten. This is a life-threatening situation, and Ninomiya has been in such a situation with Sho before - many times – and yet he is still here. Their partnership is old and strong.  
As he heads downwards, towards the gun deck, Sho hopes that partnership will be enough today as well. He hopes it will be enough to keep Ninomiya alive.  
Sho shoots down the stairs, below deck, passing by Kato on the way, the boatswain scrambling to get his belt buckled, his guns on his hips,  
“Show yourself on the quarterdeck, Shigeaki-san, you are to follow Ninomiya-san’s commands now.” Sho barks at him, making the younger man pause briefly beside him on the stairs,  
“Are we under attack Captain?”  
The question is stupid, Sho thinks, of course they are under attack, but he refrains from letting his anxiety show, refuses to appear thrown off, “I will make sure to give you more nightshifts, so you won’t be so slow to get out of bed.”  
He throws Kato a firm look before turning around to find Aiba.  
They are running out of time.  
Sho finds Aiba bent over one of the cannons, checking the fuse, and the captain wastes no time,  
“Aiba-san, I need you and your men ready at the cannons in 10 minutes, all fully loaded, ready to be reloaded, and I want you to use our heaviest artillery. Additionally, prepare guns for the whole crew. This is an urgent order. We will be under attack shortly, so be aware.”  
“Sho-chan!” Aiba yells and jumps up, his eyes shining lively.  
Just as Sho is about to reprimand him for the informality on deck – it is unheard of – he bites his tongue. It would not help in this situation, telling Aiba to ‘Please refer to me as Captain, Master Gunner.’ When the man is in this mood. Sho rarely makes use of Aiba’s weapons, and thus, Aiba will be on fire when finally, such a command is carried out.  
“I will have it all ready for you in no more than 7, I promise ya, Captain!” Aiba flings his hand up in a salute, before turning to run as fast as he can over the planks to the opposite side of the gun deck, boots thumping on the wood, all the while throwing around commands of: ‘Yamada the balls if you please, the grey ones!’, ‘Andou, pull out the guns, all of them!’, ‘We are going to blow them up, guys!”. It already smells like gunpowder and smoke down here and Sho just hopes Aiba will not blow himself and all of them up before Remarkable even catches up. If such an incident should happen, Sho wants to at least take the bastards down with him.  
“Good,” he mumbles more to himself than anyone else, and then Sho is back up the stairs, taking two at a time.  
He trusts Aiba – he met him when he met Nino, the two of them close friends since high school. Even back then, they took no special measures towards Sho despite his family status, despite his family’s wealth. To Nino and Aiba, he was just Sho, clever Sho, who was amusing to make fun of, who was quick to anger, quick to answer with a nasty comment, only to regret and apologize later. Look at where they all ended up.  
Sho is secretly thankful that they all stayed together. It makes them strong.  
Aiba is as rash as he was back then, seemingly never serious, clumsy, but deep down very devoted to his friends, the faith they put in him. Nino is forever sharp-tongued, even more intelligent and perceptive now, and is one of Sho’s most valuable assets on deck.  
And then there is Sho, the inevitable leader-figure. Always fighting to live up to the expectations. All the expectations.  
The sun momentarily blinds him when he gets back on deck, but he bullets through, knows where to step and does not stumble, despite black spots flickering over his vision, and thus he makes it to the upper deck, to find his second and third mate exchanging worried glances. He needs the two of them to communicate for him, to bring his orders to Aiba as soon as he wants them to fire, as soon as Remarkable steers where he wants her. Gods, he hopes the Pirate Captain is no genius.  
Seeing the fear in the eyes of the two top sailors, Sho puts on his most composed expression. He needs them calm and collected, he needs them to be able to think, to take the measures needed, to use their heads without him having to do it for them. And thus, he puts a hand on each of their shoulders, grasping tightly,  
“I need Yasuda below deck, keep an eye on Aiba-san, bring quick updates above deck, bring them to Ninomiya-san,” he commands, eyes locked momentarily on the young man – he is no more than a boy, is he – with hair dyed red, and nods, allowing himself to force out a smile, hoping for a positive effect. Next, he turns to Yasuda’s friend – those two have become so close, “Nakamura, you remain on the main deck, keep an eye on the sails, on the status of our ship once the pirates start shooting at us. I need you to be the link between the two upper decks. Can you be as good as to do that for me?”  
After a passing moment of exchanged smiles, albeit strained, Sho leaves the two of them running in opposite directions, certain that he has managed to put some calm in their hearts.  
They need to believe that The Daylight can beat the other ship.  
But as Sho slowly walks towards the railing, gazing towards those eerie black sails, spotting the skull on the raised pirate flag, he imagines how he can hear their roars, their barbaric screams, he imagines their brutal faces, their equally brutal knives and guns, he imagines the blood they will spill, because unfortunately his knowledge allows him to know that his ship cannot run from this.  
The wood is soft and smooth underneath his palm when he caresses the railing, and Sho closes his eyes, inhales the smell of the sea, the smell of oil and salt, hears the seagulls above, the sound of the waves below, of the bellowing sails, and he collects it all, memorises it. And admits that he has been lucky so far. They have all been fortunate. His heart tells him he has been given way too little time on sea, on a ship, in command, where he always dreamt of being – making a name for himself instead of his family providing him with everything he needs – but he wills himself to just be thankful. And angry. Furious at the pirates for taking it all away from him.  
They will pay the price with him. There is no way he will go down without a fight.  
If Sho is lucky, if Sho’s strategy works, the pirates will be forced to turn Remarkable around, to turn their port to the starboard side of Daylight. Should that happen, the ships will end up side by side. Should that happen, it will come down to who has got the bigger guns, the faster guns.  
They will blow each other to pieces.  
The pirates were smart to sneak up on Sho and his crew during the darkest hours. Smart and cunning, because such a feat is neither easy nor free of risk. No man can see enough to be able to navigate in the dark of the night.  
Sho chews on his bottom lip, wondering how the pirate captain did it. He would have had to anticipate _exactly_ where Sho’s ship was, the _exact_ direction he was moving in and Daylight’s _exact_ speed… Such a thing is close to impossible. And Sho’s hope of the pirates being less than clever, is slimming.  
There is just no way they were just lucky. No way.  
“Fuck!” his fist comes down on the railing hard, and it stings.  
Sho curses himself for his recklessness, everything is his fault. Damn it all. His success allowed him to drop his guard. The biggest mistake he could ever have made. And now he can do nothing but wait, watch the ship closing in, watch the distance becoming smaller and smaller, it will be less than an hour now…  
When Ninomiya comes up to him, his eyes are still locked on the pirate ship, beautiful, beautiful and deadly as it is.  
“The men are all awaiting orders, Captain.”  
Sho notes how calm he sounds, collected, so unlike Nino. And he is both thankful and regretful to bear witness to this version of his quartermaster.  
“Let them hold their positions for a while, we are waiting…” Sho answers, his hands clasped hard, firm at his back now.  
No matter what happens, Sho promises himself and his crew that he will continue to stand tall. They will not see their captain break, never see him fall apart.  
Ninomiya moves his gaze away from his friend – leaving Sho with the thought that there was a spark of worry there – to follow Sho’s gaze towards Remarkable,  
“You plan to lure them right into our line of fire, don’t you?”  
As perceptive as ever. Ninomiya’s train of thought is never far from Sho’s. Never has been.  
“At least they will go down with us.” Sho tells him, and his voice is cold.  
His friend hums a reply, before turning his back to the horizon, to fix his eyes on Sho. Stare hard at him,  
“Never thought our end would be a pirate ship, Sho-chan,” he says, and had Sho been 10 years younger, he would have gotten angry, felt provoked. But now he knows that Nino does not tell him this to make Sho feel bad, does not let him know in order for Sho to change his mind or feel guilty.  
Ninomiya sighs, “I never much liked Yokohama anyway. Guess this view is worth dying for.” At this, he turns around again, to lean his elbows on polished wood, to close his eyes, inhale just as Sho did minutes before.  
Sho finds himself smiling softly,  
“No, no this view isn’t bad at all.”

They have been waiting with bated breath, waited as the pirate ship got nearer, and nearer, and nearer, _nearer_ still, and Sho is close to losing heart, face falling.  
So when Remarkable finally turns around, Sho yells before he can stop himself,  
“Yes! Yes, you bitch, that’s it!”  
And he instantly turns to almost triumphantly give the order to Nakamura to raise the sails, before eagerly facing Nino, a grin spreading on his face, seeing it mirrored in Nino’s expression, “Let us blow up some pirates, Kazu.”  
“With pleasure, Cap’n!”  
Up close, Sho can make out all of the smaller details of the nimble, light pirate ship, now turned around to show Sho and his crew how beautiful she is, the grace with which she turns. Sho has to admit that he has never seen such a pretty ship. Nimble and strong as she looks. But he is not allowed long to admire the woodwork, the figurehead of a mermaid with braided hair, to make out the shapes moving around fast, like ants, on the decks, because as soon as Remarkable has turned three thirds of the way onto its side, Sho hears a yell of “Fire!” and that is as much warning as he gets before a crash splinters the silence, Daylight shaking at the impact of the first attack.  
So the pirate captain chose to fire first.  
Nino is quicker than Sho, and his answering call comes immediately after, amidst smoke and yells from injured sailors, “Fire! Firefirefire! Blow that bastard ship to bloody pieces!!”  
And then it goes off. Goes off in fire and powder, in screams and yells of mercy. There is the sound of splashes when dead men hit the water, when some flee, and Sho bears them no other mind but hating them for their lack of guts. Only half of this crew are people he has been sailing with long, Nino and Aiba the only ones he has stayed with for all of his 5 years on Daylight, and thus he is pleasantly surprised at the ones who stay, the ones who hold their ground even as the planks beneath their feet burst into a thousand splinters, wood cutting into their legs like knives, shattering bone, cutting veins. Before his eyes, his deck turns red with blood, his vision clouding, his ears filled with so much noise that he feels deaf. What keeps his mind clear is his friends, his faith in both of them, his wish to see them escape this hell.  
Daylight has been what Sho dreamed of all his life, with her pure white sails, her deep brown timber, the shimmering wood in the sun, the sounds she makes as they cut through the seas, but now the ship is the last place Sho ever wants to be. His whole being is screaming at him to flee, to run from this massacre, to forget it all, to pretend it never happened. Despite of his instincts, with Sho being Sho, it is easy to put these urges far away, to focus on what is right in front of him. This is all his. All his doing. And so, he must see an end to it. He must decide what happens, do his best to influence the outcome.  
He yells for Yasuda as the man comes running up from below deck, covered in soot, hair standing in all directions,  
“Yasuda! Bring the guns, and make haste. I reckon it won’t be long before we are boarded.” Quickly, Yasuda vanishes below again, right after giving Sho a salute, face professional, and Sho allows himself a brief moment to admire the lad. He has truly grown.  
“Stand ready, men. For our emperor! Show no quarter!” he screams the last part, means it with every fibre of his being.  
These cursed pirates and their indifference towards the law. They will pay.  
When he looks towards the side, to check the distance to Remarkable, his breath hitches at how close she already is. It will be mere minutes before the pirates will be in the air, swinging their ropes, bringing their hooks and stepladders, their swords, boarding with every intention of killing them all here. Sho wants to be ready when that happens, he wants to somehow throw them off balance before they attack, and thus he turns with intent towards the wheel and Shibayama who is holding it, keeping the ship on the right course despite the pandemonium,  
“Shibayama,” he calls, taking a step towards the older sailor.  
The man’s face is weather-beaten, tanned from the sun and his hair is long, messy. But his eyes are golden amber, lighting up his kind face, the face on which Sho so often finds a smile when he needs it. Son of a foreign mother, Shibayama has not led an easy life, but Sho saw his potential instantly and has been working with him for 3 years. After only one year did Sho decide to make him his first mate. Sho truly appreciates all that Shibayama has done for him, for the atmosphere on the ship.  
“Take her hard to port!” Sho orders then, and witnesses the change on Shibayama’s face. How he looks disbelieving first, before realising exactly what Sho is doing.  
“Aye, Captain.” He is grinning when he turns the wheel hard, eyes locked on Sho.  
And a brief feeling of triumph is allowed to take a hold of Sho’s heart, to just momentarily squeeze it pleasantly. But when he allows himself to move his eyes, to want to witness the crash into the side of the pirate ship – The Daylight is bigger, heavier and could surely cause some serious damage to the small, pretty Remarkable – the force Sho had imagined, the loud noise of cracking timber and exploding cannons, the shock to the deck beneath his feet; the impact Sho had braced himself for, it does not come.  
The Daylight does hit the side of Remarkable, but with far less strength than what was intended, only grazing her side, perhaps peeling off some paint.  
Suddenly, Sho can hear nothing, see nothing, the world is silent as he forces himself to turn, to look for Shibayama.  
And the silence is splintered by his scream, his agonized outburst of sorrow when he sees the man’s body, lying on the ground, still.  
There is only a small amount of blood pouring from his forehead. He died instantly.  
The main part of Sho’s distress deprives not from the loss of his friend, but from stone cold fear.  
The pirates have a sharpshooter.

*

The first time Jun sees Sakurai Sho he cannot help but smile.  
Satoshi’s taste rarely matches Jun’s, so he was quite intrigued when the small man answered “He has a cute nose.”, when Jun asked him whether the captain of Daylight was as handsome as Jun had the feeling he was.  
Looking at him now, despite the blood on his brow, the scowl he aims directly at Jun, the pure hatred in his eyes, Jun has to agree with Satoshi – Sakurai Sho does have a cute nose, and it is even cuter scrunched up like that. He has a sharp face. Very sharp. Almost too sharp; evidence of the lack of nutrition on many of the government’s ships. His face has the potential for full cheeks, a big smile, but as it is now, Sakurai is too thin. Thin, but nevertheless incredibly attractive with his deep black, neatly kept hair and full lips.  
Jun lets his eyes wander to the man’s upper arms, his chest, wondering how he looks underneath his pretty navy jacket.  
But attractive as he may be, he nearly blew Remarkable to pieces, and for that he is quite unpopular in Jun’s book. Only Jun’s curiosity saved Sakurai from joining most of his crew amongst the dark waves. Jun takes a menacing step towards the officer, and gets up real close, so close he can see the dark shade of brown Sakurai’s eyes have, almost black, fury subdued to just below the surface,  
“Now, Navy-Captain Sakurai, if you listen well and cooperate I will not blow you pretty face off,” Jun is only as bold as he is because Sakurai’s hands are bound, and Shota stands tall beside him. Though Jun is quite confident he himself would be able to cut Sakurai to pieces fast enough, “Additionally, if you promise to pay for the damage you caused to my baby - it's only appropriate for you to do so - I'll even promise to save the smart mouth on your left."  
His offer makes Sakurai take his eyes briefly off of him, to turn his eyes to his comrade, his quarter master. And the look in his eyes confirms Jun’s suspicion that these two are also very close friends. Which is in Jun’s favour of course,  
“For what it is worth, I regret having had to kill most of your crew, but it is partly your fault for putting up such a persistent fight.”  
The navy captain’s head snaps right back, and his gaze is now burning, voice strained and ice cold when he answers,  
“You are going to plunder her now, aren’t you? For everything. And when you are done, you plan on destroying her, burning her.” It was hardly a question, and Jun’s stomach does briefly clench in pain.  
He does not like destroying fine ships, and The Daylight is certainly a very beautiful ship, sturdy and strong. But he cannot just leave the ship as it is, for others to find. For others to believe that anyone from the crew of the ship could still be alive.  
Sakurai may not realise this now, but Jun is also doing him a favour, making it seem as though the captain has gone down with his ship, as should be.  
Jun inclines his head a small notch, before setting his hands on his hips, returning to his professional self, the part of him who is business oriented and cynical. He turns away from Sakurai and his two friends. There are no other survivors from the crew of The Daylight,  
“Gentlemen – be so good as to salvage all you can from Daylight now, it won’t be long before the damage causes her to sink, so make haste.” He orders, voice turned down a notch, and he takes care to look some of his men in the eye, “And if I catch _any_ of you stealing for yourself, I will personally cut off your hands. Understood?”  
He lets them leave with the usual “Aye Cap’n!” before glancing at his first mate, purposefully avoiding Sakurai’s gaze,  
“And Matsuda-san, be so kind as to escort our captives to the cells. I will see to them later.”  
With that, he turns around to head towards the quarterdeck, Captain Sakurai’s eyes already haunting him, while he just ignores the rude man – Ninomiya – who does not stop screaming at him as Shota and Ueda drags him to his cell,  
“You filthy, filthy pirate-asshole! I will murder you in your sleep! I will put a bullet right between your thick eyebrows, you stoic son of a bitch! The dead will come back to haunt you and your ugly ass ship. You will regret stealing from us, I hope you die-”  
There is a loud thumping sound, and Jun grins smugly.  
“Close that bloody pie-hole of yours, or I will sew it shut.”

*

The cells are cold. Cold and wet. The wood is clammy against his palms, more chilling than the planks on which he is sitting. His hands are tied behind him, feet bound together, and he is forced to remain in a sitting position. Here in the darkness, he cannot see anything but the shadows and the silhouettes of the bars, the wooden pillars, one of which his back is resting against. He can hear the sound of the sea outside, the constant yelling on deck, hear their footsteps, their boots scraping on the floor. He can hear them laughing and joking while they split the haul, the treasures belonging to the people of Japan, bought with their money, the money the government stole from them in the shape of high taxes. The pirates are seemingly more well-behaved than Sho had imagined. He did not know pirates had laws. But their captain, Matsumoto, seems to have them all on a rather tight leash, with help from his tall, intimidating first mate. Sho wonders whether the captain acts as pilot too.  
His back is hurting and his ass is sore from sitting down for so long. How long? Sho does not know when he fell asleep, chin dropping down against his chest in exhaustion.  
Dead tired after all those days at sea, on deck, Sho allows himself to fall asleep again, only briefly awake, albeit hurting, to the lullaby of the water against the hull of Remarkable.  
There are feet walking away from him when he wakes up again, and he groans at the soreness of his neck. With difficulty, he raises his head, vision blurry as a long, dark coat waves out of the door, and he cannot see, but hear, how his prison door is closed again, lock back in place. Sho blinks a few times, tries to regain his vision which he still knows he has, despite the constant lack of light.  
It must be midday, because as his visitor opens the door to go back up on the deck, Sho’s cell is granted a small streak of light, briefly, and it allows Sho to see what is put down beside his feet.  
A small wooden board, a few letters scribbled boldly into the wood.  
Sho’s breath hitches. Because the thick black tar of the letters has faded, washed away by water and salt, but he recognises the writing, the word which meant the world to him.  
“Daylight” still stands out and shines as clearly – perhaps even more so now – as the day when Sho first set foot on her as captain of his own ship, his own crew, part of something he thought to be great. Those pirates have taken everything from him. Not only his ship, but all of its cargo: Sho’s job, his future, his reputation, perhaps even his family. They have taken it all.  
And there is not room for anger in Sho in his solitude. Only sadness to know how it has all vanished. Just like that.  
Finally, he allows himself to break down and fall apart. Just for now, in the dark with no one to bear witness to a captain turning weak.

Everything is what he would give to be out in the sun again. He would give the world to the one who would untie him and let him stand up and walk. If his limps will allow him to. He does not care about the food he has been served – he did take it, albeit reluctantly – he just wants to get out, smell the sea, hear the song of the masts, the voices of the wood of the ship as they whisper. He wants to walk his Daylight again. No, that is wrong. Any ship would do. Even a pirate ship.  
In the dark, he feels his dignity slipping away as he gets used to the horrid smell of rats and vomit down here, and thus, when the young pirate as usual arrives with a few biscuits and a cup of water for him, Sho speaks for the first time in… A week?  
“I-” his voice breaks and he has to clear his throat. Several times. He does remember how to speak, does he not? “I want to see- to see your captain.”  
The boy hesitates a few seconds, probably studying Sho’s face in the dark, able to see, where Sho is not.  
All Sho can make out is the shape of the boy’s head, his messy hair.  
Then he suddenly gets up and runs off, and Sho wants to yell after him, and he leans forward to do so – only, it gets him nowhere, and he just ends up gasping pathetically to the silence.  
To Sho’s surprise, First Mate Matsuda arrives a few minutes later, Sho recognises the sound of his boots, can recognise the way he walks. Luckily, Sho cannot see his cold eyes in the dark.  
“You ready to plead for your life, officer?”  
Sho is no officer, and he feels childish obstinacy rise in him,  
“I want to negotiate.” Is all he says, choosing to keep as much of his pride as he has left. He will not let a damn first mate get the best of him.  
Matsuda hums in the darkness, apparently neither offended nor impressed by Sho’s answer,  
“Ueda, untie him, and take him to the captain. It should be no problem for you to knock him out, should he try to run. He is in no condition to cause anyone harm.”  
Sho wants to bash Matsuda’s head in. And vows to save that for another day.  
_When I can see._  
As soon as he tries to get up, his legs give out under him and he crashes ungracefully to the ground with a loud thud.  
Ueda chuckles when he loops an arm under Sho’s arms to help him limp out of the cell.  
_A day where I can stand up by myself too._  
Once outside, Sho’s eyes are allowed to take in the streak of light from the cell door, and he hears himself sigh, despite his hurting eyes. Now he knows exactly how criminals feel when he, and the rest of The Navy, catch and lock them up in cells, probably under worse conditions than this; with no food and no visitors. Sho finds himself feeling slightly embarrassed by what he has done to some men – was he not supposed to be the good guy?  
Do good guys lock people up for disobeying orders? Do good guys cut off a kid’s hand for stealing a loaf of bread?  
When Sho’s knees fail him and he stumbles again, it is not because of the searing sun appearing above his head, not the stench of sweat and rum on deck, neither is it Matsuda’s disapproving stare or the hostility from everyone around him. No, such a thing would not bring Sakurai Sho to his knees.  
Ueda guides him across the main deck, towards the quarterdeck and the captain’s quarters.  
Remarkable is very much like a Navy ship, albeit lighter, slimmer somehow, and as her black sails bellow above him, there is an eerie darkness to her, something which, to Sho, seems to be a surrounding obligatory to pirate ships. In the back of his mind, he wonders whether this chill down his spine is due to an actual evil from the ship, or just the evil he imagines encasing him. The rational part of him opts for the latter, whereas his first thought and his father’s voice tells him it definitely has got nothing to do with Sho’s opinions and prejudices.  
Matsuda shoots him another scornful look when he opens the door to the quarter galleries, his piercing eyes moving from Sho to Ueda,  
“I will take it from here, Third Mate, get back to work.”  
Somehow, Sho feels reluctant to see Ueda go. Despite his amusement at Sho’s state, he kept a firm hold on Sho’s shoulders, somehow an unexpected support, Sho realises now. And he really does not want to be alone with first mate Matsuda. He gets the sense that if he does not stay on his toes, Matsuda will be the first one to strike him down, and fast – Sho at least wants to go down with a fight. He slowly turns his gaze back to the tall man,  
“No funny ideas, right? Or Captain Matsumoto won’t even get to be the last person you see.”  
The pirate makes it sound like something like that would please Sho. To see Matsumoto’s face before he dies. Sho begs to differ. If he could name a last wish, it definitely would be to see Matsumoto’s face screwed up in pain, if anything.  
That pirate is to blame for everything.  
They make their way towards said man’s quarters, through the inside of the ship, where there is not much light. What encases their surroundings in a sleepy, yellow light comes from big gas lamps, on both sides of the slim hallway. They do not have to walk very far, Sho notes, the quarter galleries are a lot smaller than on Sho’s ship. Which means fewer pirates, or less private space.  
Matsuda stops outside a brown, wooden door, beautifully maintained and shining.  
And once again, Sho marvels at the state Remarkable is in; Matsumoto must be very particular with the condition in which his ship is kept. Secretly, Sho approves.  
“Yes?” Matsumoto’s voice is as deep as it was the last time Sho spoke with him, and when Matsuda opens the door to let Sho enter, and he finds the pirate captain seated in his chair, Sho becomes oddly conscious of his own dirty state.  
Matsumoto is bent over his maps, a divider held neatly between his long fingers, while he is busy writing in a notebook with his other hand.  
So he is also acting navigator. _Interesting._  
“Ah, Sakurai-san,” he acknowledges when he sees Sho. And Sho is once again caught completely off guard when Matsumoto actually gets up, leaving his measurements behind.  
The pirate is wearing a short, black jacket with a shimmering design and a high leather collar, and Sho notes how the inside fabric is specked with a golden pattern, underneath of which there is a long, broad leather strap slung over his shoulder, most likely in which he keeps his guns and his sword. When he steps closer, Sho finds himself swallowing hard, noticing the huge golden specs on his very tight pants and the leather of his waistcoat, noting that one side of Matsumoto’s jacket is long – not sure whether this is for stylish reasons, and would not be able to comprehend such a thing should that be the case.  
By just taking in the pirate like this, Sho understands that he is very aware of his looks and his clothes. It is almost difficult to look at his face, all sharp features and neatly styled hair; brown and swung to one side.  
It is so odd to Sho – he never imagined a pirate could look like this, act like this; be so neat and proper and well-mannered. And here he finds himself in this gorgeous – there he said it – man’s quarters, smelly and dirty and tired, probably looking horrible. He hates it. He absolutely hates it.  
Sho’s face is hot with mixed feelings of embarrassment and annoyance. Someone could at least have given him a new set of clothes before he had to see their captain again. But, he tells himself, they _are_ pirates, maybe Matsumoto does not even care after all.  
“I am pleased to see you in my quarters, Sakurai-san,” Matsumoto starts, and moves his gaze to Matsuda, “You can leave us, Shota-san. I am sure Captain Sakurai will not cause any trouble.”  
There is a knowing look in those light brown eyes when he smirks at Sho, nodding when his first mate leaves.  
The door has barely closed before Matsumoto takes a step back, to lean casually on his big desk. His room speaks of wealth and prosperity. Which makes Sho itchy.  
“I will not cause you any trouble, Matsumoto-san, if you let me and my crew go.”  
“Your crew?” the smile on Matsumoto’s face disappears, “What is left of it, you mean. Since there is only you, your quartermaster and your spirited gunman.”  
Sho feels his temper rising, though the pirate’s tone of voice is unreadable, so Sho is unsure whether what he says is actually meant as mean-spirited.  
The pirate is hard to read.  
“What is left of my crew,” Sho grinds out, nodding briefly.  
He already did come to terms with the position he is in right now. A position which is far from favourable.  
“Well, I could let you go, but you see…” Matsumoto trails off, and Sho is perplexed as to why his heart skips a beat when Matsumoto looks up at him from underneath his eyelashes, looking slightly mocking and smug at the same time.  
The pirate takes a deep breath for emphasis, “One of your crewmembers is probably reluctant to leave.”  
…  
“What?”  
Sho does not mean to sound stupid, but he must admit what Matsumoto just said makes no sense to him. Does one of them want to _stay_? Maybe Sho is tired, but the worst case scenarios start to race through his head.  
And it only makes Matsumoto’s smile widen,  
“Your quartermaster – or should I say _former_ quartermaster – has become quite comfortable on my ship during the week you spent in your cell. As a matter of fact, he only needed two days before he decided that becoming a pirate was a perfectly sensible job for him.”  
He cannot come up with any answer for that. Sho feels his mouth open and close a few times, but no words seem to be able to express what he feels. How does he reply to that? What kind of answer could he possibly give to Matsumoto?  
There is a violent pain spiking around his heart. He feels betrayed, confused, lost. Three things of which he does not remember having felt before.  
Matsumoto’s smile falters, and for a brief moment, he looks almost sympathetic. But that softness to his expression is quickly gone, and maybe Sho only imagined it to make the pain feel less… Painful.  
The pirate pushes away from the table to walk around it, stand next to his chair,  
“I will allow you to speak to him. And to your gunman too,” Sho raises his eyes, feeling utterly pathetic, his shoulders sinking. What pride does he have to uphold anyway now? To whom?  
“Then you can decide for yourself whether you want to join my crew too. That or the plank.”


	2. Chapter 2

It is only much later that Sho realises what Captain Matsumoto actually offered him. And the outrageousness of it, considering Sho’s station, Sho’s position.  
Before that, he needs to speak with Nino, with Aiba, make sure they are unhurt.  
Matsumoto offers Sho a bath before anything, but Sho refuses – there are more important matters at hand right now than smelling and looking nice.  
If anything, it will have even more of an impact if he shows up in front of that _stinking traitor_ when he looks like this. Sho wonders how much luxury Nino has had compared to him, for 5 days.  
Ueda is the one who shows up at the captain’s door to take Sho back on deck and not First Mate Matsuda who is apparently busy – something which Sho is quite grateful for. He is not sure how much more of looking at Matsuda’s sulky face he can take.  
The sun is still beating down from a cloudless sky, when they return to the main deck, and Sho suddenly notices the small figure near the railing, arms crossed as he looks up at one of the masts,  
“What are you doing you DUMB OLD MAN!? Do you want to die?!” he yells and Sho’s eyes immediately shoot up too, running over the sails, the spars, before he finally spots a small man, walking – yes walking – along the ropes. Then he has to remove his gaze, momentarily blinded, but his heart is beating wildly. Is that not dangerous!?  
“Well yes ok then clearly go ahead be my guest, break your neck, I don’t care."  
“Ninomiya-san,”  
The man removes his eyes only when Ueda calls his name, and Sho feels somewhat satisfied when Nino’s eyes widen, his smile instantly vanishing.  
But Sho’s brief satisfaction is bittersweet.  
“Third Mate Ueda-san, how are you,” Nino greets, curiously avoiding looking at Sho.  
And Sho does not blame him. Had he been in Ninomiya’s situation, he would have been embarrassed too.  
It is no wonder that Sho did not recognise Nino in the crowd when he first went across deck; his friend has removed his navy jacket, wearing just a white shirt with the first few – or more than just a few – buttons opened and his navy blue pants, rolled up to show his skins. There is a piece of cloth around his waist, dangling by his leg, and Sho’s heart falls when he realises how much this look suits Nino.  
Nino never really wanted to be a navy officer anyway, did it mainly for Sho’s sake. So maybe it is not so strange that Sho’s childhood friend was easy to persuade to join this pirate crew. As far as Sho’s impression goes for now, Nino could have had it worse – this is a very nice ship.  
“You can return to your previous work, Third Mate,” Nino says then, voice firm, but slick, “As second mate, I am sure I can handle myself just fine with this one.”  
There is an underlying meaning to Ninomiya’s words, this cunning way of dismissing someone he does not want to listen in, to look at what the two of them are about to do. Sho understands Nino’s way of thinking, instantly recognises this way of speaking, and for a brief moment, he allows himself to hope, if only because his heart wants to believe that his friend has not fully committed to this piracy thing.  
Ueda does not leave before glancing between the two of them, but Nino just smiles; that meaningful, slim, feline curl of his lips so familiar, and Ueda is forced to step back with a brief bow.  
As soon as he is gone, Nino turns to Sho, and there is a lump in the officer’s throat at the sudden, sad look in his friend’s eyes. And Sho knows, just _knows_ , that Ninomiya has not done this to betray him. He would never,  
“Sho-chan, you look terrible.” He says, but there is not that usual jest with which he would normally say something like that, “How long did you stay in that cell?”  
“It is of no important,” Sho does not even want to think about it, he can breathe fresh air now and that is what is important. That, and why Ninomiya has become second mate, “Why are you here?”  
Ninomiya does not answer right away, and to his credit, Sho can see in his eyes how he ponders his words, throat moving when he swallows,  
“You don’t know, do you?” this causes Sho to raise an eyebrow.  
He is close to saying that of course he knows nothing, he has been locked away for a _bloody week_ , but then Nino continues: “They threatened to kill you.”  
Sho lets that line sink in, quickly understanding everything, Nino does not even need to elaborate, but Sho lets him anyway. He needs to hear it,  
“When they had locked us all away in separate cells, they came to me quite early. Said ‘You are his quartermaster aren’t you? His right-hand man.’ Of course, I refused to answer anything at first, those dicks knocked me out in that cell! Guess they couldn’t handle someone telling them exactly what they are and what they deserve. Anyway, a while later that menacing-looking first mate came along – Matsuda Shota-san – and no I am not scared of the bastard, but I just could not read him in that darkness. He says to me, voice as cold as usual: ‘Quartermaster, the captain will give you a choice.’…” Ninomiya trails off, biting his lip, shaking his head.  
They forced him into this, most likely just to see Sho squirm. For a captain to learn of his close comrade’s betrayal; did they expect he would give in then? Become infuriated and saddened? Losing his composure and his will?  
Sho’s hands ball into fists at his sides. He is about to say something, something which could most likely get them both in trouble, should anyone hear them, but Nino stops him by raising a hand,  
“But you know what? It is not so bad. Far less of these people are as rotten as I thought,” there is a smile playing at Nino’s lips, and he is obviously trying to reason with the stubborn, prideful Sho whom he is facing right now, trying to keep him calm. When Sho gives no indication of understanding, he sighs, “Let us talk later ok? I have ropes to tie, men to put to work, and a scout who does not follow orders at all. And you need a bath. If my gut feeling serves me right, I do not think Captain Matsumoto will put you back in that cell, but you will be a prisoner. I hope you can behave though,” Sho’s eyes narrow dangerously, and Nino’s hands instantly fly up in a surrendering gesture, “Please! Don’t get me wrong, I just hope to see you around, so please… Please try and be calm.”  
And then he leaves surprisingly fast, nodding his head to Sho – a weaker version of the bow he always got as Ninomiya’s captain – before he whisks away with a yell upwards of “I _will_ make you crawl down from there, you lunatic!”  
For the short while he is left alone, Sho scolds himself for ever doubting his friend. The choice Ninomiya made was no easy one; he ended up sacrificing his own pride and goals to get Sho out of that cell, to make sure they kept him alive.  
There is just so much Nino has done for Sho over the years, for most of their lives actually. Nino is simultaneously the most selfish and the most selfless person, Sho has ever known. And Sho does not know how he can ever repay him.

*

Jun inspects the inside of the hull with a tightly drawn expression.  
There are cracks and holes in the bow, damages to the main deck where they usually keep the lighter weapons, and to the gun deck, where most of their cannons are, polished and ready for a fight any time. They have had to move a lot of the artillery to the lower decks, in order to get a clearer view of the damage, of how severe it is.  
The pirate captain had Tatsuya Yamaguchi, his boatswain, check it earlier today to come up with an overall calculation of the cost for the repair – which is very much necessary. The Remarkable is in no state to fight another ship right now, should they be unlucky enough to come across a fast navy ship or one certain pirate who steals from other pirates.  
Just thinking about that son of a bitch and his Glamour has Jun seething with anger.  
Luckily, there is no heavy damage to be found on the lower decks where they keep their stores and supplies. Had Sakurai and his crew managed to hit them there, Remarkable and her crew would have seen quite harsh days from now on. The most vital thing of all on Jun’s ship, what he values the most and knows the importance of is their supplies; their water, their food and most of all, their haul to bring them money. In this case, a lot of the goods from Sakurai’s ship will be sold to pay for the repairing of Remarkable.  
If Ohno had not shot that one crewmember of Sakurai’s who had the wheel at that time, Remarkable would have sunk, pirates and ballast and all.  
Just seeing how much his dear ship is hurting like this makes Jun snappy and very curt towards the crew – he is in a foul mood, and it will not get better until they reach Singapore.  
The city is the main place for pirates to sell their stolen goods, to restock on provisions, to buy what they need and also what they do not need. Jun knows there might very well be a couple of women waiting for him as well. Being at sea for months on end, chasing ships he is unsure whether he can catch, can make a pirate very needy for specific things, ways of loosening all his tightly-drawn muscles, transfer his aggression and stocked up energy as well as relax afterwards.  
This time, after such a fight, they all deserve a few days off. Yes, and they probably all need that visit to the women once they reach port.  
But they will not see land for a month. Remarkable will just have to stay above water, while Jun tries his best to control his temper until then.  
Earlier this morning he met with Sakurai, fetched from his cell by Matsuda, on Jun’s own command. Jun wanted to see whether he had broken the handsome navy captain and his stubbornness.  
But the man had looked as fierce as when Jun destroyed his ship, his back as straight as a board when he walked in, remaining so, right until Jun told him about his quartermaster, Ninomiya, and how he had joined Jun’s crew.  
Oh, Jun cannot deny the slight joy he felt at seeing how such a thing could make Sakurai falter, lose his composure slightly. The pirate almost felt bad when he had realised what a close friend Ninomiya was to Sakurai, and how he himself had been the one to tear them apart. It had been part of his plan from the second he saw the three of them together, the only survivors from Daylight. Though of course, they were only alive because Jun wanted them to be. Usually, a captain went down with his ship, but in this case, Jun had wanted to see exactly what kind of character the famous Sakurai was – _The_ Sakurai and his Daylight no pirate had ever caught before – and whether Jun was the man to break him.  
Oh, and just to spite the officer and his spotless reputation, Jun let him live. But then, in Jun’s quarters, the colour had returned to Sakurai’s face while Jun gave him the option of joining his crew too, and it made Jun feel opposed, challenged, when Sakurai clearly had no intention whatsoever of changing side.  
Jun does not like to feel inferior in his own quarters, where he is supposed to be in control and command, so when Sakurai’s black eyes shone with determination and inner strength, it had almost made Jun regret his offer, wanting to throw the damn officer to the sharks. Or shoot him right above his nose.  
Despite it all, even now Jun realises what an asset Sakurai could turn out to be, if Jun can convince him to join, to become Jun’s pilot – his navigator.  
For the past three years, Jun has acted as his own navigator, being forced to be busier than ever, since his close friend betrayed him and left it all on Jun’s shoulders. Had it not been for Shota, Jun would probably never have gotten back on his own feet, regaining his strength like that. Deep down, Jun is plotting how to best show Toma exactly how far he has come on his own.  
Maybe he will even present Captain Sakurai to him, should the cold officer remain stiff and stubborn. Jun will have to visit said person’s master gunner later, see whether Sakurai has had enough guts to visit him. Funny how that Aiba should be the one to refuse to leave Sakurai’s side, to remain loyal like that.  
Jun chuckles to himself, shakes his head when Tatsuya shoots him a questioning look.  
The captain cannot wait to see what fate awaits those three. In its simplicity, it all comes down to Sakurai and the choice he will make.

*

Compared to the baking sun above deck, the cell is cool and clammy, much like the one Sho found himself in. But compared to his, this cell has a few small portholes, leading out to the sea, bringing in a small breeze, and most importantly; light. Sho cannot quite decide whether this small difference is a blessing or a curse, whether it is crueller to leave the prisoner with or without light. Because with the light, he can see himself, he can see the walls and the moss and the snails which inhabit the cell, he can see from where the horrid smells come, and he can see what he has to lie in for days on end. He is forced to lie in, not only his own dirt, on the icy planks, but in his own embarrassment too.  
For a navy officer, these are very indecent conditions. Sho’s heart bleeds for his close friend, and it only becomes worse once he finds his sunken frame in the dim light.  
“Aiba-san,” he says gently, but he may as well have yelled with the way Aiba’s head snaps up.  
There is darkness in those usually bright eyes, but once Sho’s friend recognizes him, his face lights up in a smile, as if he is not currently bound to that bloody cell-post, hands and feet tied together.  
It makes Sho feel insanely guilty. He is the one to have landed Masaki in this position, he was the one to decide the fate for all of them. To think that the gunman would go as far as to accept to be put here, to be treated like an animal, just to make sure Sho stays alive; Sho has a very hard time accepting that. The captain is certain he does not deserve a friend who is so steadfast and willing to go this far.  
“Why are you down here?”  
Sho cannot think of anything else to ask, how else to phrase it. He got little info from Ninomiya, had to guess most of it himself. Not that he wants to blame Masaki for his choice; the younger man saw his way as the rightest one, never wanting to betray Sho.  
Aiba smiles sadly, moves his lower half a bit, trying to sit up straighter, to appear more decent in front of his captain. And Sho just feels shame,  
“Those pirates gave me no choice, Sho-chan, I know you would not like me to ever join them. I did not want to betray you.”  
Sho’s master gunner is a lot simpler than Ninomiya, and does perhaps not think as far as the younger man. To Aiba, this is the way to remain loyal – Ninomiya believed his way to be the rightest one.  
It takes a lot for Sho not to break down then, ashamed of what he has indirectly made his two best friends do. He never wished for them to go through something like this. He only wanted them by his side, when he hired them to his crew – no, he did not hire them, he left them with no choice.  
Out of the three of them, Sho was always the one to make the decisions, to steer the course and navigate. It is not right that he should be the one to choose their paths for them. How they spend their lives.  
“And hey, this is not so bad. I bet it is damn hot up there on deck. You know, I prefer to stay below deck, though of course I like when I have my cannons around me. It gets quite lonely down here.”  
Sho’s friend blabbers, while Sho does not listen. Instead, he runs his eyes over Aiba’s dirty face, sees the bruise above his eye, his cracked lip, his swollen cheekbone.  
They have not treated him right. They did not have to hit him! Knowing Aiba, he would go down without a fight, he would have followed them obediently after making his choice. Not like Nino, who is constantly close to getting into trouble.  
Sho is furious at the pirates, furious at their captain for letting them do these things to Aiba. And for what reason? Because they have pent up frustrations and are bored?! That simply will not do. Sho swallows his anger, clenches his jaw before gritting out an answer,  
“Aiba-kun, this is _not_ ok. These conditions are not ok. I will speak to the captain right away,” Aiba turns quiet for a second, eyes big. Then Aiba smiles again, albeit half-heartedly, “I will get you out of here.”  
Whether he does not have the heart to look at Masaki’s slim frame – thinner than ever – any longer, or whether he wants to vent all of this anger out on a particular pirate captain as soon as possible, Sho is not sure, but he turns around abruptly, pace so fast that he does not have time to consider, least of all answer Aiba’s quiet words,  
“I am very relieved to see you unharmed, Sho-san.”  
Their history goes back many years; Sho’s, Aiba’s and Nino’s.  
When Sho had no one, when he felt lost at who he was supposed to be, what his right path was, what he wanted for himself, Aiba and Nino were there to support him, to calm him when he was angry, when he was sad. It was not – and is not – easy being the eldest son of Sakurai Shun, lord and daimyo. The expectations are huge, the rules very strict. More oft than not, teenager-Sho would run away from home, try to escape the prison he felt around him. As he got older, getting closer to accept the harsh conditions, Ninomiya was there to smack him in the head and make him realise how wrong it really was, while Aiba would always come running with cold water after Sho got into fights. There was a period, when Sho was around 18, where he was constantly fighting. It was his way of helping himself, instead of smoking, of drinking. And should he come running home, bloody and beaten, his father would slam the door in his face, refuse to let him in. So he stayed over at Ninomiya’s house, sometimes Aiba came along too. Now that Sho is grown up, he realises how much of a burden he must have been on Ninomiya’s mother. She, who worked 18 hours a day to feed her family, and sometimes him too. But Sho still remembers her as always smiling, never one to turn him down when he was in trouble.  
So Sho owes everything to his friends. Without them, he never would have become the man he is, he would never have made his own way, never found his way to a ship of his own.  
Sho still finds himself confused, more often than not, but that is ok when he has people to support him, be patient with him.

*

“I demand to speak with your captain. Now.”  
Sho is surprised at the calm in his voice. Given the circumstances, he should either be aflame with anger or trembling with fear.  
Matsuda is a head taller than him, seemingly towering above Sho in his dark grey coat and unbuttoned shirt. His arms are crossed in front of him and he has, as usual, got that menacing look in his eyes, mouth a hard line,  
“The Captain is busy, come back later.”  
“Fuck you, the hell I will come back later. Get out of my way!”  
When Sho moves to push the first mate away, he grabs Sho’s arm, _hard_ , twisting it around, and pain burns its way up Sho’s arm, gets to his head, makes him dizzy. The next second, he finds himself with his cheek pressed against the floor, the smell of leather in his nostrils when he eyes Matsuda’s boot only a centimetre from his face. He grunts in pain, tasting blood on his lips when he refused to yell in pain. His face is flushed, in annoyance at how weak he is. Had it not been for that damn cell, he could have shown this son of a bitch-.  
“Matsuda-san!”  
A very firm voice has the man above him letting go instantly, making Sho groan indecently again as he rolls around on the floor, wanting to get up.  
Matsumoto is standing in the door to his office, one hand on the wooden frame, and his face is slightly twisted in anger.  
Sho finds himself staring at those perfectly trimmed, big eyebrows, furrowing above the captain’s nose,  
“Stand down, first mate. I will thank you to _not_ treat the Navy officer this recklessly again, understand? Now remove yourself, your sour mug annoys me.”  
The first mate is intimidating, but it does somehow not confuse Sho as to why the man so quickly backs down, bows his head briefly and stomps down the hallway, leaving Sho to get up, hands and knees first before he wobbles to a standing position. Matsumoto sure looks and sounds equally intimidating, his low growl only evaporating when Sho gets into his line of vision.  
Man, he could really use something to eat. Those crackers are worth less than shit. Now he really wants to get this over with.  
“Sorry about that,” Matsumoto does not sound sorry at all, “It is not like I can concentrate anyway, when you stand out here, yelling. Come in.”  
Had it not been for that small taste of the dirt, Sho would have been close to blowing up in anger – at least he had felt like that after leaving Aiba. Now, he feels thin and drained, not quite as ready as he was before to fight someone. He really hates that first mate, but maybe it is for the better.  
Sho feels calmer now; it is never a bad idea to seem cool and collected when making important negotiations. And maybe even more so when it is with a pirate captain. Sho has to admit that despite his experience with these negotiations, he has never once attempted to do so with a pirate before, but so far, his impression of Matsumoto is a lot better than his initiate prejudice of a pirate. Sho thus has to rely on that impression, on his hunch that Matsumoto is an intelligent man – cunning yes, but intelligent – and that he will listen to Sho.  
Despite the two of them being enemies, as different as they can be, and from two completely different worlds.

*

Jun is impressed. He would never admit it to anyone, but he is utterly impressed by this navy man.  
Despite all of what Jun and his crew has put him through, he remains standing, albeit dirty and smelly, he hides his exhaustion and hunger. The fire still burns in his eyes, and now he has even made his way back to Jun’s office to negotiate.  
Jun just has to give it to him: This one is strong, determined. Jun cannot remember having met one as stubborn as Sakurai. And maybe that is exactly why he wants the man on board even more now.  
Jun waltzes around his big, oaken table, running his fingers over his maps just to feel them under his fingertips, eyes moving over his open books and charts, pens and dividers lined up neatly alongside them. The captain is never not prepared, going over his plans and calculations again and again, both to make sure he was right the first time but also to see whether he needs to add new aspects, new variables. In his years of learning, math has never been one of Jun’s strong suits, and thus he struggles with navigating sometimes. Not that he is not thorough, but he knows someone else could do it faster, more elaborately, perhaps coming up with various scenarios and alternatives, so as to not only have _one_ plan. A lot of Jun’s success, he thinks he owes to luck – though of course, he would never tell anyone this – luck and recklessness perhaps.  
The crew of Remarkable is famous for being cunning and fearless, and their captain’s personality has to reflect such as well. Jun knows that when he caught Sakurai’s ship, it was not only because Jun was sly enough to sail swiftly through the night, but because he caught Sakurai off guard.  
This close to Japan, the navy captain must have loosened up enough for Jun to surprise him. Unprofessional, yes, but human.  
“Please, come closer, do not stand in the doorway like a shy maiden,”  
Small specks of red bloom on Sakurai’s neck, visible now that he is just wearing his dirty white shirt, his jacket taken from him. Jun does not need him to flash those golden navy buttons on board, it would only enrage his crew.  
The officer is most likely politer than he is shy, but Jun does not have much patience for formalities. Once he steps closer, Jun lets his eyes shamelessly trail from the gaping opening of his shirt, the sweaty skin of his collarbones to his face, slightly withdrawn and unreadable. But he looks tired and thus, Jun decides, should he continue to impress and pique Jun’s interest, he will let him have that bath after all. Along with something to eat. Jun thinks he prefers him strong.  
Jun leans back in his heavy chair, crossing his legs and resting his underarms on his thighs, “Well then, Sakurai-san, what had you cause such a ruckus in front of my door? It must be urgent.”  
Credits to Sakurai for not fidgeting, being thrown off by Jun’s seemingly disinterest and impoliteness, like so many others before him. He has done this before, Jun observes.  
“I demand you let Aiba-san out of the cell he is in, he did not deserve to be put there,” Sakurai answers him firmly, fists balling at his sides.  
Jun lets his eyes move downwards, before moving them back to Sakurai’s face, taking his time to answer, for no purpose but to be annoying, “I am sorry, Sakurai-san, but given your circumstances, I do not think you have the right to _demand_ anything,” there is movement under the skin of Sakurai’s jaw, “The fact that you are standing here, being allowed to freely walk around my ship, do you not think you are more than privileged to be able to do so?”  
He observes how Sakurai’s eyes narrow, but the man does not answer, waits for Jun to finish, and it makes the pirate smile, albeit wickedly, “Of course, you being let out of your cell, given reigns to speak with your friends has all been for a purpose. Have you considered what I offered you earlier?”  
“I will not join a pirate crew. Ever.”  
Oh.  
Jun’s face falls. He should have known Sakurai would shut the door like this, without hesitation. He sighs,  
“Well that is indeed a shame, Sakurai-san.”  
“Do not give me that. Why would you even want a navy captain joining your crew? Or do you not consider risk at all, Matsumoto-san?”  
“Ah, so you are declining for my sake. Well that is very considerate of you, officer.”  
Again, Jun takes pleasure in the way Sakurai’s face blushes a light pink,  
“You cannot trust me.” Sakurai growls, jaw clenched.  
Of course, Jun knows this. But he also knows that Sakurai Sho has the reputation of being reliable, steadfast, honest. He is not the type to join a crew in order to sabotage it. He is bold, not sly. He would rather fight fairly and lose, than to cheat. Much unlike his former quartermaster, Ninomiya Kazunari, which may be why they make such a great team. It would be a major asset to have them both on board, to have their trust. But Jun knows such a thing might never happen, unless they change their way of thinking.  
Jun rises from the chair, makes a show out of pushing himself out of it, to rest his hands on his table and lean slightly forward,  
“I cannot trust you,” he agrees, serious, “But maybe you can learn to see things from my perspective, Sakurai-san, if, of course, you stop being so bloody conservative and stubborn,”  
“Why you-!”  
“Until then,” Jun holds up a hand and effectively stops Sakurai from interrupting him, “I will let Aiba-san out of the cell, _if_ he sees to my cannons in the hold, and _if_ you promise to consider my offer.”  
It does not leave Sakurai with easy decisions to make, but for Jun it is the only way to get an excuse to keep the three navy men on board. For a pirate, even letting a navy captain live is an outrage, and had it not been for the crew’s faith in Jun, had it not been for Shota and his support, Sakurai would have been shot before he even set foot on Remarkable. Jun controls Shota and Shota controls the crew as his first mate and quartermaster of sorts.  
The pirate captain wants to give Sakurai as much time as possible to consider his position, to consider Japan’s situation, the living conditions there, what the man _thinks_ he wants and what he _really_ wants. Jun cannot possibly know how Sakurai’s mind ticks, what his desires are, but he knows his own, and wants to obtain them. Once the ship reaches Singapore, Sakurai’s time will be up, and the man needs to have made a decision by then. Which will ultimately decide the future of Remarkable.  
Sakurai still has not answered Jun, so with an exaggerated sigh, the pirate rounds the table again, steps closer to the officer and surprises himself by offering a sympathetic smile,  
“I will have Shota-san show you an unoccupied cabin where you can stay. You have my word that I will not send any of you back down to the cells.”  
Sakurai’s lips part slightly, and Jun finds himself glancing down to his mouth when the man opens and then closes it again, deciding against whatever he considered saying.  
Then Sakurai nods, his eyebrows trembling slightly in confusion, in thought before they move down.  
He is surprised, taken aback, which somehow pleases Jun. To be able to divert from the way Sakurai thought Jun would act, the pirate likes the thought of it, wants do to it again.  
For now, he walks past Sakurai to the door, and when he opens it, he is not surprised to find Shota a few metres down the hallway, arms crossed, leaning against the wall.  
Saving the test to see whether his first mate listened in for later, Jun gestures for him to come forth,  
“I want Sakurai situated in the cabin beside yours, so make sure he does not run off,” For once, Shota is surprised, an emotion Jun does not often see expressed on his stern face, “And please, Matsuda-san, convince him to take a bath, those cells did nothing good for his body odour.”  
When Jun turns around again, Sakurai is blushing.

*

Sho has to admit that after a scalding bath and plenty of soap – maybe a bit too perfumed for his taste – he feels a lot better. His room is very small, nothing more than a bed to one side, a small table beside it, and a bathtub along the wall to the right. There is a curtain drawn up in front of the bath, so there will be some kind of privacy, which Sho found himself appreciating when he got up and found a tray on the small table. Whoever walked in with it, has at least not seen him naked.  
The small porthole above the table is dirty, making it difficult to see anything beyond the glass, but Sho appreciates the light coming through more than he could have imagined. The fact that he can follow day and night is a relief to him; he wants to be able to keep track of time, to know how long he has been gone, how long behind schedule Daylight is becoming, probably increasing the worry in the hearts of the people waiting for them, more so with each passing day, no sight of them on the horizon. And there never will be.  
There is no desk for Sho in this room, but he will not be needing one. He knows he needs to be up on deck as much as possible, to gather information, to observe the pirates, talk to Nino and to Aiba, make sure they are not harmed in any way, as well as to figure out a possible way for them to escape.  
Sho needs to return to Japan. He is not the type to run, and though he knows there is no way for him to bring back the cargo from Daylight, to bring any form of value with him, he knows he needs to face the punishment for losing face like that, losing people’s money and trust. There will be humiliation to face, responsibility to take, but Sho knows he has got no choice. There is no other way.  
On the tray he finds fruit and rice, some dried beef and a flask of water. Briefly, he allows himself to consider how the pirates are able to store these things without them turning bad, but he does not need to think for very long.  
As opposed to cargo ships, to navy ships in general, pirates plunder; they take what they need when they need it, and thus it is easier for them to live in this kind of luxury.  
If Sho had not been this famished, he would have refused to eat stolen food. Now, it is for the sole purpose of surviving that he gulps down the water, swallows the rice and beef perhaps a bit too fast, before being able to slow down with the fruit. He cannot remember the last time he ate this well, and once more, he finds himself wondering what Captain Matsumoto’s plan is exactly.  
Why does he continue to treat Sho like this? Why is Sho – as prisoner – given these luxuries? Is it only to butter him up to convince him to become a pirate? An outlaw? It is so much against all that Sho stands for, it is almost laughable that Matsumoto thinks there is _any_ chance of persuading Sho.  
He is not Nino. Not Aiba. Despite their friendship, they think so very differently. They come from different backgrounds, have different pasts, different bloodlines. Different fates.  
As Sho slowly chews on a grape, he discovers that he feels as bound on his hands and feet as he was down in the cell. There is no difference.

Eyes always burning into the back of his skull. Footsteps echo his own. Shallow breathing down his neck and Sho is turning insane. Whenever he thinks he has a moment alone to think, just when he moves to try and speak with one of the pirates, Matsuda will show up. That nasty first mate is constantly making Sho’s hairs stand on end, and more so because of his menacing eyes, not his towering frame or that earring shining in his ear. He allows Sho no possibilities of gathering intel without him knowing.  
Damn it all. Damn that Matsumoto.  
There is little hope to be found, and Sho can only watch as his plan of escaping becomes less and less likely to happen.  
One small relief does find Sho today when Aiba comes running up on deck from below, face a whole other colour than it was when Sho visited him a couple of days ago. He must have spent a lot of time greasing the cannons, because not only his hands but his face too, is covered in soot and sticky oil.  
“Sho-chan!” he yells and waves enthusiastically as soon as his eyes meet Sho’s.  
The day is grey, the sun mercifully hiding behind a thick layer of low-hanging clouds so Sho has stalked his way up on deck again, sneaking out and hoping that Matsuda would not notice, at least for a few hours. So far, he has been lucky, and catching Aiba seems to signal that this day may just turn out to be ok.  
One would not guess that the man has been a captive for more than a week with the way he beams and runs over to Sho, a spring to his step,  
“These pirates have awesome guns!”  
Perhaps this guy is just happy when he has got a weapon to work on, Sho speculates, forcing out a smile,  
“Glad to see you up on deck for once.”  
There is a split meaning to Sho’s words, but he tries to cover his own bitterness, now that Aiba looks so happy. There is no reason to make his friend miserable, that would only make two of them,  
“I have been very busy with Matsumoto-san’s cannons. Really, compared to yours down there, they are in awful condition.”  
_Mine… That are not mine anymore,_  
“I will personally hunt down the one who did not care well enough for his babies here. But! I promise I will take care of them, as if they were my own.”  
From a very young age, Masaki always seemed to personify the items he played with, worked on, surrounded himself with. Sho once suspected it had something to do with the loneliness Aiba sometimes felt as a child, but now he is no longer sure. Maybe the man is just weird that way.  
“You are happy on Remarkable?” Sho surprises himself by asking such an honest question, but Aiba does not seem to notice anything weird about it.  
“Some of the pirates are a bit strange,” he twirls his finger beside his temple, “But I guess we all get like that with too much rum and sun. Really, stay away from those flasks if they offer you, it is horrible stuff.”  
Then he suddenly seems to be distracted by something behind Sho, because his eyes flicker away from Sho and he gets up on his tiptoes to wave, “Shota-san! Hi!”  
Sho freezes.  
Well. So much for that.  
Despite Matsuda’s presence moving closer, Sho does not turn around to greet him. He has no reason nor wish to.  
The sound of the man’s low grumble reaches Sho’s ears – the only response Aiba gets to all of his waving.  
“Well, Sho-kun, I better get back to work. Come visit me on the gun deck, if you are bored.”  
And then he is off, and Sho already misses him, despite the endless flow of blabbering from his mouth.  
If Matsuda came for a reason, he does not voice it out. Instead, he remains standing behind Sho like a looming statue, causing displeasure to emit in heavy waves around the both of them.  
Sho takes a deep breath and lets his shoulders slump further down. Another long day ahead…

*

The majority of a day, he spends bathing. There is a small fireplace in one of the larger collective quarters where Sho can heat up water in big pots for the oval, wooden tub in his room. It takes time to heave up the salty water in big buckets, takes time to heat it up and prepare the bath to the right temperature, but it keeps Sho occupied, keeps the muscles in his arms at work. Often, he does various exercises on the floor of his quarters before he cleans himself up, as he so often did on Daylight, just to keep himself in shape. Perhaps it also scares him to know how Matsuda brought him moaning in pain to the floor so easily – he does not want that to happen again. Next time, he is determined to bring the first mate to his knees. Preferably right in front of his captain.  
The captain himself is often to be found on deck, leaning over the railing, his expressive eyes wide while he talks with one of the mates or cabin boys, a smile on his face, or barking orders at the riggers, snarling and cursing when they are too slow to furl or release the sails of Remarkable. He seems to be everywhere, hands on his hips, a different expression worn depending on whom he is talking to and what he wants the person to do for him.  
Sho spends a lot of time watching him, as the shadow behind Sho cannot possibly catch where Sho is looking, or when. And this way, Sho also ends up finding a way to harvest information without actually asking for it. In the end, Matsuda becomes his navigator, his enabler to listen in on conversations, to watch the crew work, how they do things.  
Because whenever Matsuda is near, the pirates all seem to relax a bit; they put trust in the fact that it is Matsuda coming along. And as the days pass by, they seem to almost forget Sho’s presence, that Sho is actually the one taking Matsuda out for a walk and not the other way around, because Sho always keeps quiet. And none of those pirates notice how his eyes continue to keenly observe.  
The only one never loosening up is the captain.  
Not that Sho gives him a chance to either, since he feels a burning inside his stomach every time he lays eyes on the pirate.  
Matsumoto is the incarnation of everything Sho despises: Thievery, crime, disorder, recklessness, unwillingness to be a part of a working society, to follow the rules.  
But as much as he tries to forget it, Sho cannot ignore that Matsumoto definitely is more than that. The trust his crew has in him is hard to deny, and his inner strength and determination is something Sho knows is mirrored in himself, though some of the things Sho is aware that he lacks, he can see in Matsumoto; the joy of what he does, his confidence and lack of confusion, and deep down, it is probably something Sho envies. Which most likely just makes him dislike Matsumoto even more.  
He rarely greets the man, except for the occasional nod when he walks by, refusing to maintain eye contact for too long when Matsumoto looks back.  
Sometimes, Matsuda stops and talks with him and has to catch up to Sho afterwards, because Sho just continues walking.  
Occasionally, Sho is lucky enough to sneak off to have a chat with Nino or hide down below with Aiba. When he does the latter, he always has a bit more time before he is detected, and those rare times are the blessed moments where Sho allows himself to relax, to stop being so on guard and on his toes. With Aiba, he can breathe out and just listen to his friend blabber about Matsumoto’s weapons and the occasional gossip on board.  
But the only useful information is what Ninomiya gathers, and should Sho end up there, it does not take long for Matsuda to find him – the first mate is clearly aware of whom he needs to keep an eye on. Though Sho suspects Matsuda’s every move is decided by Matsumoto.

It has been a chilly day on board, though the sun is still shining down on them from above, and Sho is leaning on the railing, gazing over the almost motionless waters while Matsuda exchanges a word with his captain. He allows himself a moment to close his eyes, inhales the scents around him, realising how fresh the wind still feels on his skin, despite him being on a pirate ship.  
It is still the same. The waters have not changed, neither has the air around him, the weather. He himself has not changed either, or at least he believes so.  
For a minute, eyes closed, he imagines he is back on Daylight, the sails above him white, the smoothness beneath his fingertips well-kept and shining because of him, because the wood belongs to his ship, his precious ship he fought so hard to obtain. His Daylight.  
When he opens his eyes again, the sun is sinking on the horizon, casting various colours over the sea, encasing him in sleepy, red light. There is movement to his left,  
“We never tire of this view, do we?”  
If Sho is surprised by Matsumoto’s presence, he does not show it, he does not want to. But neither does he answer the statement, instead casting a brief glance in the pirate’s direction,  
“Where is your first mate?”  
“I sent him off on a break for a while. He is not needed when I can keep an eye on you.” Matsumoto attempts a crooked smile, but Sho is not impressed, so he drops it quite fast, “And I figured you were tired of being on such a short leash. Since you have behaved so well, I think you deserve just a few hours for yourself.”  
_Then why are you here?_ Sho does not voice this out loud. For some reason he is not entirely sure of, it just does not feel right. Not when Matsumoto is not doing anything particularly mean-spirited to him. In fact, it is quite the contrary.  
So he just hums deep in his throat, turning his gaze back to the waters, feeling how Remarkable easily cuts through the miniscule waves beneath them. He has to admit that she is a very light and comfortable ship. There is speed in her.  
After a while of silence, Sho finds himself speaking,  
"You pirates are not as filthy as I expected."  
Out of the corner of his eye, Sho sees Matsumoto smiling softly, eyes on the setting sun before them,  
"I like to smell nice while stealing. And I like my crew to smell nice while stealing. Can’t have our enemies being able to sniff us out because we do not know personal hygiene."  
It makes Sho smile. But as quickly as he realises this, mortified, he wipes it off his face, humming again.  
Then, Matsumoto turns to him, though Sho does not have the courage to look back,  
“Your friends like it here.”  
The statement in itself is innocent enough, but there are insinuations and meanings underneath it, a reality Sho does not want to react to, since he cannot face it. It is too soon. He opts to remain silent, mostly because he has no idea what kind of answer Matsumoto expects.  
A seagull cries in the distance, before Matsumoto removes his eyes from Sho, giving up.  
For now.  
“You have an hour without Matsuda. Then you are expected to be back in your quarters.”  
When Sho finally looks up, the pirate is moving away, walking towards the stern, or perhaps the captain’s quarters. And Sho gives him a few minutes, before he steps back, turning around to walk in the opposite direction, into the darkness. He is going to make the best of that hour of freedom.


	3. Chapter 3

“Furl the sails, for fuck’s sake! Didn’t you bastards hear me the first time!?”  
Matsuda is screaming Matsumoto’s orders at the top up his lungs, eyes relentlessly held above him on the people crawling on the slippery spars as they fight to save the sails from the merciless wind. But the first mate’s eyes are blinking rapidly, the heavy drops of water blowing into his eyes and mouth, making it difficult for him to see.  
Equally difficult is it for the riggers to hear him above the roar from the wind, the blasting of the crashing waves below.  
Jun is by the wheel, squinting into the darkness beyond the ship, the waters thrashing and fighting against Remarkable.  
He has tried this before, they all have, but that does not make a storm less dangerous.  
If they do not manage to get the sails furled and tied up properly, they risk them getting ripped to pieces, and becoming useless. And no sails mean no speed, no movement. Which means they will get stuck on sea, still far from Singapore. Stuck at sea means death, the rations only able to last so long. An immobile pirate ship is a sitting duck for anyone who would want a piece of their hold, of their weapons, their manpower.  
Jun knows a few who would like a piece of him too.  
Storms are always risky, but they are a natural occurrence and they happen frequently, especially in this area of the Asian Pacific,  
“Matsuda! Get Ueda to make sure Aiba-san has secured the cannons!” The captain bellows, before moving his booted leg to regain balance as he fights with the wheel.  
The waters are strong, very strong, though Jun refuses to back down. That would mean the end.  
Remarkable is not a heavy, strong ship, not build to fight mother nature like some of the heavier navy ships. She is light and small, almost fragile-looking compared to ships such as The Daylight. Despite of this, Jun’s ship has survived longer than any of those Naval ships she managed to destroy or outrun.  
And despite his fear, Jun would not change his ship for any other. They are one in cases such as this. Jun puts trust in his ship, in himself, he believes they can fight it. And should Remarkable go down, so will he.  
The rain is icy on his skin, obscuring his view, but Jun just needs to keep the ship from tumbling over, just needs to keep them all above water. They can get back up, back on course when the skies clear again,  
“Lay your back into it, Yamada-san! I can see you stalling. There is no time for that!” Jun yells now that Shota is not present to do the yelling for him.  
The riggers have the most dangerous job on the ship, and it becomes even more life-threatening for them during a storm such as this. Despite of it, their roles are essential for Jun, for the whole crew, though everyone knows the risk which comes along with the position.  
Jun’s eyes shoot towards the bluish grey sky, squinting to make out the slim masts reaching towards the rain like flowers yearning for water, sighing while they bend to the wind, and he thinks of Satoshi who is somewhere up there, struggling along with his comrades.  
Though, contrary to the others, the small sharpshooter is most likely not the least bit scared. During the day, the lithe man can be seen balancing on the ropes, crawling from one mast to the other, making sure everything is in order. And when he tires of that, he will be resting in his crow’s nest, from where he can also keep an eye on everything, from where he can take aim and kill as easily and gracefully as he dances behind the billowing sails.  
He is one of Jun’s greatest assets. And his best friend.  
But despite his talent, despite the faith Jun has in his abilities, the captain will always worry for his friend in a situation such as this.  
The deck shakes, and the ship heels strongly to the right, so sudden that Jun has to reach out and make a desperate grab for the seachair, eyes widening when he witnesses the wheel instantly turning, the second Jun lets go. He stumbles, hair soaked in rain- and seawater both, bangs getting into his eyes as he half-crawls, half-jumps to the wheel again, grabbing for it, gasping against the strong pull which temporarily takes his breath away.  
But he manages to struggle to his feet again, pushing himself up, so the muscles of both his arms and legs can help in turning them back on course. And slowly, the captain succeeds in stabilizing the ship again, now just having to follow the movements of the ship against each wave, when Remarkable yaws again and again, one time steeper than the other.  
Matsuda resumes his yelling on the deck below, and Jun can see that the sails are finally tightly bound and secured, which has him breathe a sigh of relief. At least those will be safe for now.  
Now it only comes down to his perseverance. Whether he can retain his strength through the night.  
And of course, whether all of the mates and riggers and cabin boys can become burdocks on deck, persisting through the night.  
Said crew members are all bustling below him, running and crawling, falling over and tumbling amongst one another while the timbers squeal, the ship unstable and restless.  
He watches from his post as a huge wave comes crashing over deck, silent and deadly, leaving the men screaming, screaming for their friends, for their lives as the water takes a couple of them, holds them in its firm grasp, capturing, abducting, before it leaves again, the wood of the deck wet and dangerous but devoid of two of the crew’s mates.  
While he follows the happening taking place, an unannounced shadow to Jun’s left sneaks up on him. It causes him to startle when he notices, so much that he almost loses his recaptured hold on the wheel. But just in time, he catches himself and grabs the strong handles even firmer, scolding himself for being caught off guard. Despite the darkness around him, the yells and roars of the sea in his ears, he should remain standing firm and aware.  
Squinting, staring into the darkness, Jun finally makes out the figure and recognizes whom it is approaching him. There is no pirate on this ship who has such a decent stature, such a lean back, nor so stoic a walk,  
“Sakurai-san, you should be below deck.” Jun tells him, voice fighting the wind.  
But the navy captain does not react, he merely steps right up next to Jun, managing to surprise and confuse him after all,  
“Let me take over for a while, Captain,”  
Jun cannot quite interpret the tone in his voice, if there is any, and he wonders whether this is how Sakurai would speak to his quartermaster, his crew of higher station; voice solid, not quite a command, nor a request. Why would he want to help Jun?  
Sakurai watches patiently, raising an arm to shield his eyes from the cruel rain, while Jun’s eyes narrow, scrutinizing, considering.  
How can Jun be sure that Sakurai is not just planning to steer them all to their deaths? He cannot.  
Despite of that, he nods, turning his body slightly so the officer can step up beside him, take over without Jun letting go of the wheel too early.  
In spite of the risk, Jun knows the advantage of someone else taking over the wheel for a while.  
When he moves closer, Sakurai’s arm lightly brushes Jun’s, the heat from his body a strong contrast to the icy wind, the cold which has crept into Jun’s core without him noticing. Not until now.  
As soon as Sakurai has both hands on the handles, feet planted solidly beneath him, he nods to Jun, silently reassuring him.  
But it is not his strong, brown eyes which give Jun the courage to step back and leave the ship to him – it is his belief that Sho will do his utmost to keep his friends alive. There is no way he will risk pulling those two to their deaths along with himself and all of Jun’s pirate crew.  
Jun is exhausted to the bone, he realises, now that the adrenaline is fading from his body, his tense shoulders relaxing, but he does not want to leave deck, does not want to leave Sakurai’s side. He does not – obviously – have faith in Sho. Actually, he does not trust the man at all. Though, he secretly wants to.  
Sakurai still hates him, Jun knows that, and Jun does not blame him for it.  
On the contrary, Jun understands the man. Had Jun been in his position, he would have felt the same, though he probably would have been far more aggressive about it, throwing a tantrum, trying to knock the teeth from the skull of the person who had taken it all away from him.  
Sakurai’s calm is to be admired. Envied even.  
Though Jun does wonder how long Sho will be able to maintain it.  
Behind Sakurai’s collected, deep-brown eyes, Jun is still unable to read anything.  
Looking at the man who is currently steadily standing behind the wheel of Jun’s precious ship, stubbornly still wearing his navy blue slacks, the white shirt with the gold-threaded cuffs, Jun discovers that the officer is still a complete mystery to him. Though Jun suspects he now knows how to make Sakurai’s cheeks redden. Which pleases him.  
The reason why Jun actually wants to be able to put his trust in this man, is that Jun knows how much potential Sakurai has, how capable and skilled the navy captain is. Sakurai has a strong and feared reputation amongst pirates, everyone knows him and his Daylight. How much of an impression would it not make if he joined Jun’s crew? They would be unstoppable.  
With Jun at the wheel and Sho at his side, navigating their course, cunningly outwitting everyone, thinking of various scenarios at once, there would be no ship on these seas which would be able to withstand the force of their combined wits. With Sakurai’s brain and Jun’s resolve, they could open doors that Jun so far has only dreamed of, reaching places he cannot go to alone.  
Jun realises he has been staring at Sakurai for far too long for it to be normal, when the man removes his gaze from the horizon, to look back at Jun, his wet hair clinging to the sides of his wet face, his lips red from the cold.  
The ship is tossed forcefully to one side and Jun stumbles, catches himself too late and has to put one knee to the ground, cursing for that display of lack of elegance. Normally, he would be the last person standing.  
This time, it is Sho, with the support of the wooden wheel preventing him from falling over.  
Jun sees how the officer regains his posture and spins the wheel suddenly, powerfully, and the ship tilts again. The deck shakes when a wave crashes against the hull, pushing them hard to starboard, and above them, the masts whine unhappily.  
Automatically, Jun looks up, while listening to the screams of various riggers, now no longer where they belong amongst the robes, but down below, caught in the cruel waves.  
“Man overboard!”  
“Shit!”  
Sakurai curses and spins the wheel again.  
And Jun realises Sakurai is fighting the waves, avoiding the hardest, biggest ones so they will not flood the deck and take even more defenceless men with them, down, down into the darkness. Sakurai is slowly morphing with Remarkable, the two getting acquainted, learning how to work together while Sakurai grows to control the wheel with every passing minute.  
Jun finds himself slightly in awe. And a little bit annoyed at how this outsider controls his baby so well.  
“Are you alright?”  
Surprise must mark Jun’s features as Sakurai catches him completely off guard.  
The navy captain is looking at him, something akin to concern flashing over his eyes fast, briefly, fading when Jun nods, teeth clenched in embarrassment when he unsteadily gets back on his feet.  
“Yes…”  
Sakurai probably does not hear Jun’s answer as he barely whispers, stunned into silence.  
Jun cannot look at him.  
Why did Sakurai ask? Why did he care? Maybe it was just a reflex, a captain’s instinct. Something Jun wants to just ignore and forget ever happened.  
But the words echo in Jun’s ears for a long time.  
Long into the night while he continues to stand by Sakurai’s side as they fight the storm.

*

Matsumoto ends up losing 15 men to the sea.  
The storm does not relinquish its power over water and men before early morning, when the clouds in the west take on the colour of icy grey, the sun fighting to break through the thick blanket the rain and storm clouds has kept tucked over the sky for hours.  
When Remarkable slowly calms down, her rudder ceasing to fight against Sho, he allows himself to breathe a sigh of relief, feeling all the muscles in his body untighten and relax.  
Sho is drained, utterly and completely. He desperately wants to sleep. Sleep and then maybe have a long, hot bath to heat up his body again, take away the ache in every single one of his limps.  
But there is someone who deserves a break even more than he does. Someone who has remained standing longer than Sho suspects he himself could have lasted.  
The captain’s back is leaning against the seachair, arms dropped to his sides a long time ago when he finally let sleep overpower him, after reluctantly taking Sho’s advice to at least sit down for a bit. Now his head is tilted awkwardly to one side, lips parted as he breathes steadily in and out, deep in sleep.  
Sho finds himself reluctant to remove his gaze from the pirate’s slumped form.  
He fought so hard during the course of the night.  
Before Sho decided that it was riskier to let the captain continue to hold onto the wheel than to have Sho take over, as someone not familiar with the ship, Matsumoto stood here alone, for hours, never complaining, never asking to be relieved or helped. Sho cannot quite decide whether Matsumoto is insanely strong or insanely stupid. He definitely has a lot of stamina.  
Sho wonders why no one was by Matsumoto’s side up here when Sho came.  
Matsuda was busy on deck, communicating Matsumoto’s orders to the various positions on deck, but what about Ueda? A mate? A boatswain? Anyone?  
Why was he up here alone?  
Back on Daylight, Sho would never have left anyone by themselves with the wheel in a storm.  
No matter the danger, no matter how busy everyone is stumbling over one another during such a dangerous event, Sho would never accept someone solitarily handling the wheel. One man cannot fight a storm alone. No matter how acquainted he is with his ship, no matter his experience.  
You just _do not_ leave one man with such a responsibility.  
Sho’s eyes run over Matsumoto’s face, the usually hard lines of his features relaxed in his slumber, and he looks so young to Sho, way younger than when he is running from point A to point B, yelling at his crew for being lazy, younger than when he looks up at Sho from his captain’s chair, papers strewn all over his desk and he sends Sho a haughty smirk.  
There are scars from acne left on Matsumoto’s pale cheeks, but the charm of the dots of beauty marks scattered over his skin equals out this imperfection, only making him more alluring. His sharp features are almost hard on the eyes of the observer, but like this, Sho notices an innocence about the pirate, something he most likely only shows to the fewest of men.  
Feeling like he is imposing on something he is not supposed to see, Sho forces himself to look away, to turn his gaze towards the deck below, follow the crew with his eyes as they gather themselves again, getting ready for the big clean up.  
But Sho is well aware that he does not _see_ what happens in his line of vision – his sense of sight spotted with dots of black; above and below full, slightly parted lips.

*

The smaller man is speaking in a hushed voice, crouched behind a crate on Aiba’s gun deck, to hide from the all-seeing eyes for just a minute, just a brief moment, in order to share with Sho what he knows.  
The light is dim, and they are hiding in one of the furthest corners, their voices obscured amongst the yells from Aiba, who is either scolding his helpers down here for not doing a proper job on the artillery or jumping up and down in enthusiasm about something.  
Sho scrunches up his nose to the mixed smell of sweat and gun smoke.  
“So, as I see it, and probably how you see it too; our only chance of escape is in Singapore. Those savage pirates will be drunk and visiting the whorehouses far into the night while some of them make repairs on the ship. In the dark of the night, it will be a lot easier for us to sneak away. The captain is not stupid though, so it is very likely that he will put one or two men on the job of guarding you, because you are still untrustworthy-”  
Sho makes an unsatisfied noise in the back of his throat,  
“-But as I assume you will have regained your strength by then anyway, you should be able to take on a couple of pirates. Am I right?”  
There is a light challenge in Nino’s voice. Both he and Sho knows that Nino is no big fighter. Sho’s friend is sly and can easily slither out of most dangerous situations, but confronted directly with a big, muscly pirate, Sho holds a better chance at getting them out of that sort of trouble.  
“Sounds like the basis for a plan,” Sho agrees.  
Regaining his strength is definitely one of the first things on his to-do-list, and he reckons he is not far from reaching it. He has been on the ship for a couple of weeks now, fed up with plenty of rice.  
Really, does Matsumoto not see the risk of treating Sho so well?  
“Have you spoken with Masaki?”  
Nino nods, “I think you should have a talk with him as well. You are the strategist after all. You will know how to make the best use of the utilities Aiba-shi can gather without the pirates noticing. We probably won’t need much. It would not surprise me, should our captain send a hell of a lot of pirates after us in Singapore when he hears about our escape. All of Singapore will be against us. Thus,” the man pauses for emphasis, “We need to be _out_ of Singapore, before the captain finds out.”  
Sho already suspected it, but Ninomiya confirms the reputation Matsumoto has amongst pirates.  
The man is not only famous and feared by the Japanese Navy, but by the pirates hunting on the same waters as he. Apparently, no one in Singapore does not know the handsome Matsumoto Jun – as Nino so accurately described him. Like Sho, Matsumoto has an almost spotless reputation, close to unbeatable.  
But not only is Matsumoto famous and feared, he is also very admired, well-liked.  
Sho would not put it past the pirate captain to be able to charm his way to anything.  
Somehow, with that information, Sho is not as embarrassed about being beat by this particular pirate. He would never voice out such a thing, though of course.  
“I agree. If Singapore is anything at all like what we have heard from rumours, then the place itself is insanely dangerous for navy men like us. If anyone finds out that Matsumoto-san has a group of officers on his ship, I reckon we will come to need those pirate guards he puts on us.” Sho says, bringing up the topic which is on his mind every night, occupying his mind until he falls asleep.  
“Hmm, you have point there. Maybe,” Ninomiya scratches his chin, “Maybe J would opt for guarding us, not as a preamble against our escape, but in order to protect us from the pirates in Singapore. It would honestly not surprise me.”  
“J?!”  
Suddenly, Sho’s focus has shifted – he cannot help it – hearing the kind of ridiculous nickname Ninomiya has given Captain Matsumoto. Sho knows Nino is great at inventing nicknames, but for him to actually feel so close to the captain, so relaxed in his company, in his crew’s company, that Nino would give him a nickname?  
A strange, unwanted anxiety starts worming its way into Sho’s belly before he forces it to go away.  
Nino is known for giving everyone nicknames, even the people he is not particularly fond of.  
Despite of this, Sho wants to ask how much Nino likes the place here, whether he feels at home and comfortable. With the glances Sho often throws at his friend while on deck, when he is unable to speak to him because of the watcher behind him, Sho almost always finds Nino with a smile on his face, grinning at someone for some joke they made, or teasing one of the cabin boys.  
Sho knows the navy life was never really something Nino was passionate about, but even so…  
“Ah, Shota-kun!”  
At the sound of footsteps against the dark floorboards behind them, Sho startles slightly, rising as fast as he can and turning, more so out of instinct, to face the approaching man.  
The first mate appears still only a few feet behind them, hands in the pockets of his black pants, and his eyes are as cold and unreadable as ever.  
Sho instantly starts considering how much the pirate could have heard, whether he will tell Matsumoto, and what will happen after that. If Matsuda knows about Sho planning to flee in Singapore, that plan is useless. And since the captain has only given Sho time until they reach that pirate port, to come to a decision, there will be no second chances of escaping after that. Not without betraying the crew of course. Which is always a possibility, Sho realises. It is not like Sho will be bound by a contract, should he agree to join the crew,  
“You never smile much, do you Shota-pon? You know, it does strengthen your cheek muscles. If you have any that is. I say the world is so much brighter when you smile.”  
“Shut up.”  
It does not surprise Sho that Nino is so utterly unfazed by Matsuda’s intimidating aura. Since Sho’s friend is not someone to be intimidated by anything. Only a few times did teenage-Sho and his temper manage to startle Nino.  
But even so, Sho has a nagging feeling that it really would be better for Nino to keep his mouth shut this time, to not provoke the first mate. Because, despite Ninomiya so fast becoming second mate, Matsuda is still his superior; Matsumoto’s direct right-hand man.  
“Aww, and your mouth is filthy too.”  
Matsuda narrows his eyes, and it is clear that Ninomiya’s words annoy him.  
Sho can feel the cracking in the air, and in the darkness of the hold, there is no saying what Matsuda could do to Nino, covering it up later, because there was only Sho as witness, and who would ever believe his statements?  
To think that Nino actually managed to get a verbal reaction from the man, albeit small, is quite a feat.  
Sho suspects a big part of why the first mate is so intimidating is due to the fact that he so rarely talks. It makes it even more difficult for Sho to understand him, to figure out where he stands and what he thinks.  
“Nino…-” Sho starts, but does not make it very far in his admonishment.  
Ninomiya grins, “I was just joking, of course Shota-kun, you know I respect you a lot. So please don’t look so mad.”  
The tall man growls, first real display of his dissatisfaction.  
Sho takes a deep breath, bracing himself as he feels the critical moment pass over the next few seconds, the spark flaring and dying when Matsuda tilts his chin towards Sho, attention removed from Ninomiya. For the time being at least,  
“What are you doing here?”  
Ninomiya’s distraction should have given Sho plenty of time to brace himself for this kind of inevitable question. Being seen in the company of his shrewd friend below deck, and alone is very suspicious. That being said, Sho knows there is nothing Matsuda can do if Sho does not provide him with anything he can use against Sho.  
“You do not allow me many chances to talk with my old friend up on deck, Matsuda-san,” Sho starts, folding his arms across his chest, “I do not think you can blame me for escaping to the hold. Especially because my other, old mate is seeing to your cannons here.”  
_And he did not warn us of your presence… Not much of a guard dog._  
Matsuda shows no signs which could display his thoughts when Sho finishes, but his mouth is set in a hard line, and Sho knows there is nothing he can actually say to this,  
“I want you up on deck again, do not go sneaking around down here. It is suspicious.”  
When he turns to head back up, it is an indication for Sho and Nino to follow.  
Sho glances briefly at his friend, noticing his smirk. And Sho rolls his eyes at him.  
Maybe Nino’s risky teasing of Shota was not only for his own personal pleasure before, but a means to help both of them out of a situation which could have turned dire.  
Always the more perceptive and aware one, that Ninomiya. Sometimes, Sho wonders where they would have ended up without him.

Back on deck, Ninomiya does not hesitate to suddenly fly past the two others, towards the gathering of shroud on the railing of the ship, where a small, round-faced man has just set his feet on the planks of the deck,  
“Oh-chan! Finally decided to join us mortals on solid ground? – As solid as a piece of wood in the middle of the sea is of course.”  
Sho watches while refusing to let his displeasure show on his face as Ninomiya moves right into the man’s suntanned face and grabs both of his cheeks, pinching them,  
“You still alive right? And in one piece? I see you are as brown as ever, old man, you would beat us all in a game of hiding-in-the-mud.”  
Ignoring Matsuda, Sho steps past him to walk up to Nino and the man Sho has not seen before.  
One would almost think the man arrived on his first day today, if his skin and the fact that Sho has not seen him before is any indication. But Sho remembers his first day on the pirate deck, filthy from the cells and angry at Matsumoto and his authority which managed to convince Nino to join the crew of pirates. Sho had been scared and feeling lost, right up until he found Nino screaming at someone amongst the spars and ropes above, someone Sho could not see. If Sho is not mistaken, this is the very man Nino was scolding at that time.  
Apparently, this time around, Nino’s issue is the colour of the man’s skin and not the fact that he is playing tightrope-walker 30 metres above deck,  
“Ah, Sho-chan, this is Oh-chan, he is J’s scout.”  
So many nicknames in one sentence and Sho is close to smiling at Nino’s casual presentation.  
Sho bows to the small man, about a head shorter than Sho, “And Oh-chan is short for?”  
“Ohno Satoshi,” the man states, his brown eyes sleepy as these seem to have stopped working, temporarily stuck on Sho’s face. This pirate looks like someone who could fall asleep standing upright.  
The officer is just about to feel uncomfortable when Ohno continues: “You do have a cute nose.”  
Where Sho is dumbstruck, mouth slightly open as he has no idea how to answer to that, what Ohno means, Nino barks out one of his signature laughs, hiding his face in the crook of his elbow beside Ohno, all too late to prevent the sound from escaping.  
Sho raises an eyebrow, unimpressed, but Ohno makes no indication of elaborating.  
Instead, he turns to Nino, silently watching him until Nino calms down,  
“Do you know when it is time to eat?”  
This guy might as well have plopped down from the sky, head-first if his state of mind is anything to go by. Not only is he sleepy, but very absent-minded too.  
He reminds Sho of Aiba. In a less enthusiastic and hyper form.  
“J is busy with his papers and numbers right now, Oh-chan, but I am sure the cook can find you an apple or something, ok? Let’s go see him.”  
Ninomiya hooks his arm around Ohno’s shoulders and drags him along with him after throwing Sho a quick salute,  
“Do you think he has any bread?” Ohno inquires softly as they leave.  
It would not be surprising if Nino has got the cook wrapped around his little finger too – knowing Nino, the man will probably sneak down in the kitchens at night demanding food. He used to do so a lot in the past, his eating and sleeping habits totally messed up.  
Sho feels a pleasant warmth welling up inside him, he cannot prevent the smile, and this time, he does not try to. If he ignores where he is – and it is somehow easier today – he can be happy for Nino. One cannot deny that Sho’s friend looks to be in his element; he enjoys life here.  
With the pleasure Sho feels at the sight, there appears a bitter taste on his tongue too, but there is no time to dwell on it, because someone is coming towards him now, from the quarterdeck and the officer’s quarters.  
There is no mistaking the broad shoulders, the sway of his hips, and the way the Captain holds himself, and somehow, Sho feels the need to straighten up, before the younger man comes to a stop in front of him.  
“Good evening, Sakurai-san. Shota-san,” Matsumoto gives Sho a small, brief smile, nodding to the man standing behind him.  
Still ever reluctant to acknowledge Matsuda’s presence too much, Sho lets him walk away, listening to his footsteps when he turns around to leave Sho in his captain’s presence.  
“So,”  
Matsumoto turns his attention fully back to Sho, arms now behind his back, and before he even starts, Sho knows this man wants something from him. It is evident in the slight pulling at his lips, the grin spreading fast, the spark in his brown eyes.  
“I have been thinking that it is about time you pay me back for all those meals, I have provided for you. Don’t you think that is fair, Sakurai-san?”  
Sho cannot quite pin-point what it is he sees flashing in Matsumoto’s eyes. Challenge? Teasing?  
But Sho does agree, he has been on Matsumoto’s ship for three weeks now, doing nothing but bathing and eating and shuffling around with a dog on his heels; he is bored. He certainly would not mind being able to do something on a ship again, so he mirrors Matsumoto’s smile with one of his own,  
“I do. What do you have in mind, captain?”  
The pirate’s smirk broadens,  
“Well, my masts need to be oiled.”  
“The masts?”

Ok, not funny. Not at _all_ funny.  
Sho wants to scream and crawl down, to have someone be there in his stead. He wants to die. Anything.  
Anything is better than this!  
“Aww, stop looking so pitiful Sho-chan, you are only suspended 28 metres up in the air, with only a rope as your lifeline. Piece of cake!”  
“Nino! I will kill you!”  
Sho can hear his laugh even from here, and he wonders whether that imp is turning up the volume just for Sho to hear how much he is enjoying Sho’s distress.  
Though Ohno is beside him, figuratively holding Sho’s hand, he is doing nothing to stop the ones below from making fun of Sho, turning the experience even worse than it already is.  
Had it not been for Sho’s pride and will not to appear weak – he is failing – he would have screamed at the top of his lungs. Then Ninomiya and that damn Matsumoto would be certain that they are going to get hell in the future.  
The rope around his lower abdomen is uncomfortable, too tight and not at all secure enough – Sho has nothing for his feet to rest on, and it scares him shitless. The mast before him is slimmer than the one on Daylight, and Sho can clearly see, now that he is up close, that the shining white paint of Remarkable needs a new coating. He is somehow relieved that the sun is not shining. It would mean the white colour blinding his eyes, and Sho does not need that additional discomfort. But still, why did it absolutely have to be Sho who got the job? Why not one of the riggers?!  
Dangling beside him is the small lookout, a relaxed expression on his face. For him, this is a piece of cake, since his job is usually a lot more risky.  
Honestly, Sho thinks he looks bored.  
But he is patient as he hands Sho the broad brush, holding the bucket of white paint between his slim fingers. There are already drips of paint on his skin, a bold contrast to the brown of his sunburn.  
Sho swallows a huge lump in his throat while he tries to control his movements mid-air. With nothing to help him, he is slowly turning around his own axis, trying his best to hang still, and failing. His lips are pursed in concentration, when he manages to make the first stroke of the brush. And cause himself to turn right again, away from the mast and his job.  
“Ahh! Come on, help me here!” he moans in frustration, kicking in the air like a baby and trying his best to ignore the uncomfortable tickling in his stomach.  
“You can do it! You just need to get used to the ropes!”  
At the sound of Matsumoto’s voice, Sho looks down, and instantly regrets it.  
His stomach drops, and there is a violent surge in his chest, causing him to gasp, feeling as if there is no air in his lungs.  
“Nononono… Not good..” mumbling on repeat to himself, desperately trying to calm down, he catches Matsumoto’s eyes.  
Even from here, Sho can see the huge grin on his face, how it lights up his eyes and lightens his features. It is as if he is looking at an entirely different person, far from his usual brisk pirate exterior.  
Sho stops mumbling, stops gasping as he just stares at Matsumoto, noticing how he clearly enjoys Sho’s distress and discomfort. What a sadist really, Sho thinks, though looking at the pirate strangely calms him down. Is this how Matsumoto looks, when he is not the captain of Remarkable?  
Ohno suddenly pokes Sho in the ribs, and he squeals like a rabbit.  
Beneath him, Ninomiya breaks out in another laugh, and Sho briefly witnesses Matsumoto joining him. Though he regrettably cannot hear Matsumoto’s laugh, he can see the man bent over, resting his hands on his thighs.  
At least someone is having fun, Sho thinks bitterly, returning to his fight against the ropes and the mast, armed with his white brush, a sour look carved on his face.

*

It is thrilling, for Jun to witness the barriers coming down around the navy captain. Had he known it was a job such as this which would have the man lose his composure, Jun would have sent him up in the masts a long time ago. But no one told him Sakurai had a fear of heights, and thus, it was a lucky coincidence those masts needed new oil, and that today was the perfect day to do it.  
Though Sakurai is smaller up there, face difficult to make out against the bright sky, Jun can feel his displeasure, his anxiety and fright, and Jun has no qualms admitting that he likes seeing the man troubled like this. It is cute. And with the way he complains and makes a fuss like a child, Jun realises that the man also has humour; something he has yet to share with Jun. The fact that he has an amusing side to him pleases Jun to a great extent.  
Jun wants to see more of this, wants to explore what kind of person Sakurai is, beneath his professionalism and golden cuffs. There is more to the man, a depth which has resulted in the choices he has made in the past, in the choices he is to make in the future.  
Along with the wish to convince the man to join Remarkable’s crew, Jun finds himself with a desire to share his own experiences with Sakurai as well, to explain how a pirate comes to, and to show Sakurai who _Jun_ is, underneath the coat and the guns and the captain’s exterior.  
“He is not working very fast, now is he?” Ninomiya comments from beside Jun, “But I guess amusement like this is rare on a pirate ship, so maybe that weighs out his worth as a painter.”  
“We can have lots of fun on a pirate ship, you just have not participated in story nights, yet.” Jun does not look elsewhere when he answers Nino, smiling faintly when Sakurai once more flaps like a chicken when the rope sways.  
“Story night?”  
“Where the crew share stories of past raids or funny childhood stories. Almost as much fun as game night.”  
Nino’s eyes suddenly widen, Jun can see it from the corner of his eye, which eventually makes him throw Nino a glance. Briefly.  
“Games? Really!?”  
Oh? Jun should have guessed that Ninomiya was into games with the way he likes to bully people and make use of that shrewd brain of his.  
Maybe it is time for Jun to include Ninomiya in some of these social events. When he does not sneak off with Sakurai, the man is actually turning out to be a really good pirate. Which is partly why Jun made him second mate so fast.  
Also partly to keep an eye on him and keep him busy.  
“You know J… That is an awful lot of gawking you are doing there.”  
“What?”  
“And your smile is creepy too.”  
Finally, Jun turns around to glare at Ninomiya, who upon seeing his face quickly hides his grin in his elbow, seriously pissing Jun off.  
“What the hell do you mean?”  
His question only makes the smaller man snort again, and Jun has to take a deep breath and wait for him to act like an adult before asking him again.  
But Ninomiya does not indulge him without sounding smug. The bastard,  
“I was just thinking that you are wearing an incredibly big smile for a pirate captain,”  
Jun raises an eyebrow,  
“- A pirate captain who is keeping an eye on his – supposedly – worst enemy.”  
“He is not my worst enemy Nino.” Jun sighs, leaning his weight on one leg.  
At least, Jun does not want him to be.  
“Clearly not,” Nino grins again, causing Jun to narrow his eyes dangerously.  
There is only so much teasing he will accept from a subordinate.  
“Maybe you should use other methods of convincing him to join the crew,”  
“Oi!”  
“- I don’t think it would be difficult. Since I have seen how he sometimes looks at you.”  
Jun’s cheeks are burning. He tries to ignore it, but it is clearly not working with the way Ninomiya’s eyes sparkle is mischief.  
The pirate cannot help it when he looks upwards again, at Sakurai’s backside, the man seemingly having the brush under control for now, and he wonders whether he would be able to break the navy captain. Insecurities tell him he cannot. Want tells him he can.  
But since Jun is not sure himself what it is he wants, he withdraws for now.  
“Shut up Nino, you know better than I that Sakurai despises everything about me.”  
He does not need to be here anymore. There are pirates to keep an eye on, orders to be given and navigation charts to be made, so Jun leaves.  
Aware of the set of eyes boring into his back, he does not notice the additional set from above, longing glance following him.


	4. Chapter 4

Pirate oil paint does not so easily get off, Sho comes to discover. After bathing for an hour, scrubbing so hard that he has red blotches on certain sensitive parts of his body, he has to give up, relinquishing the fact that he just has to accept white spots on random places for a while. Hopefully, the salt will take it eventually.  
With his decency, Sho refuses to wear his blue navy pants again though, before the messy smudges are gone, and thus, he gives in and borrows a pair of tight-fitting black pants from the pirates. Curtesy of Nino, who stepped in just as Sho was towelling himself off,  
“I convinced the captain to let you borrow these. He said they might fit you,”  
Sho is starting to learn what _‘fit’_ means to the stylish pirate, when he has to wiggle his way into the garment, his ass quite a tight fit.  
_Only_ because he has no other choice, does Sho not waddle into the study of Matsumoto in his underwear and demand another pair.  
Also maybe because he wants to see the look on Matsumoto’s face when Sho actually does not complain and pretends to be ignorant about the cut of the pants. Would that please the pirate?  
Sho is nothing if not persistently calm.  
After working in the masts for four hours, Ohno thanks Sho quietly with a nod of his head and offers him to share some rum with him and Nino in the evening.  
It gives Sho the chance of a break away from Matsuda, since Ohno has enough of Matsumoto’s trust to be allowed to keep an eye on him. And thus Sho agrees.  
On his way to the other end of the crew’s quarters, Sho finds himself looking forward to sharing something with the others on the ship, to celebrate a day of hard work. Despite his aching muscles, he feels cleansed somehow, evolved and changed. Up until now, despite not being locked in a cell, Sho has felt like a prisoner all the same.  
But today it was different.  
Despite the shape of the job, Sho finally felt freer when Matsumoto asked him to work for him.  
Though Sho does not like the pirate, does not like what he stands for and what he did to Sho and his crew, Sho found himself willing to help Matsumoto.  
And not until this quiet moment to himself, does he realise the meaning of that willingness.

Sho spends an hour or two with the two others, tasting and cringing at the rum Ohno offers him, once and for all realising what Aiba meant when he said to stay away from the stuff.  
It is strong and bitter and cheap, so much that Sho misses the sake he would usually drink back at Daylight.  
But for Nino, his taste in alcohol is seemingly the same as his taste in food: Is it poisonous? No? Good, then he will devour it. To Sho’s friend, food is more of a means to survive than for him to enjoy himself.  
As Sho does not partake in the drinking, he quickly leaves as soon as Nino’s words start to get slurry and Ohno’s eyelids grow heavy. For the sake of not wasting his time carrying the two of them to their beds, Sho quietly slithers out, making his way up on deck as fast as he can.  
Should he run into Matsuda or Matsumoto, he is bound to be sent back to his quarters. And he wants to take a look at the stars and enjoy the night air for just a little bit, just a minute.  
The air is still and completely quiet when he makes it up above, most of the pirates sleeping or playing cards below deck, making Sho the only person here. It is dark, safe for the oil lanterns hanging like still fireflies beside the door to the quarters.  
Like a shadow brushing past, Sho moves away towards the dark middle of the deck. A single lamp is dangling by a mast, but it does little to obscure or outshine the light from the stars above which makes this miniscule light pale in comparison, a small, copied fire. There are no clouds, and the sky is illuminated by thousands of winking stars, dotting a wall of black in random patterns, in clusters forming the Milky Way above Sho’s head.  
He inhales deeply, tasting the salt and the water on his tongue, now that there are no smells of sweat and paint in his nostrils to smudge its purity. Sho takes a few steps forward, albeit very slowly, dwelling in this completely silent moment he has, all to himself. Like this, Sho can easily imagine being the only person in the world. Alone with his thoughts at sea, with no troubles weighing on his mind.  
It is so blissfully calm.  
He makes his way towards the railing, the sea below him stretching wide into the black eternity, hiding the horizon by reflecting what is above. And before Sho’s eyes, it seems as though the white ship is slowly floating through the stars themselves, the perfect picture ruined only by small, unimportant ripples in the waters around the hull.  
Sho finds himself drawn to this picture, breathless when he leans over the railing, the timber beneath his fingertips the only thing preventing him from falling, swallowed head first into the ocean of starlight.  
There are no sounds, nothing but the view and Remarkable, which in the black of the night is but a shadow at sea, her light obscured.  
Sho does not startle, when a whisper of a voice breaks the calming quiet, a shade of movement in the corner of his eye,  
“Nothing compares, does it?”  
The rhetorical question is quite like the one he asked Sho a couple of days ago.  
This time, Sho finds it easy to answer,  
“I will forever yearn for this view.”  
His answer seems to surprise Matsumoto. Or maybe just the fact that he is answering has the man move a little closer, a small step, his eyes now on Sho, who continues to look at the invisible horizon.  
“Whether I am right before it or not, I yearn for it.”  
Sho does not ask himself why he is telling Matsumoto this. Maybe it is the solemn mood which makes his tongue lighter somehow, or maybe Matsumoto has come to have a calming presence on him, one which also affected him in his fright amongst the masts today. Or maybe it is Sho’s sleepy mind and his sore muscles which make the difference.  
But it does not matter.  
If Sho is to flee from this ship anyway, it does not matter whether he shares a part of his mind with his captor, lets him know that despite it all, Matsumoto has let him have more than any other pirate probably would by letting him enjoy the stars.  
“I never quite took you for a dreamer, Sakurai-san.”  
Sho snickers, smiles to himself and shoots Matsumoto a brief glance, feeling a warmth starting to take root in his chest,  
“I do come across as more of an actor, don’t I?”  
That has Matsumoto smiling softly, before he turns to follow Sho’s gaze across the water, “I always dream before I act,” the pirate starts, and as his eyes swallow up the view, his voice drops in sound, as if he is suddenly elsewhere, “Everything I do, I do because I want to. What I have here, this ship, my crew, is something I have yearned for, still yearn to have. At sea, there are no rules to make my life worth less. Nothing preventing me from being happy.”  
The brown of Matsumoto’s eyes vanishes in the stars, and his irises are illuminated, swallowing up and mirroring the sky above.  
Sho’s eyes are now impossible to tear away from this other view,  
“I have always wanted _freedom_. Freedom from the ropes that used to bind me to a post, a duty as someone who could never become more than third mate,” Matsumoto pauses and takes a breath, and Sho has to lean towards him, move closer by a few steps to hear how he continues. In the silence, Matsumoto’s voice becomes quieter, “Though I was better, though I helped with the coordinates, they never let me be more than an errand boy!”  
His rising voice makes Sho startle, and he recoils. Only to witness how Matsumoto is biting his lips, eyes hard and hurtful.  
The stars and the quiet are not only doing things to Sho, it is making Matsumoto spill things too. Things, Sho somehow suspects have not been shared for a long time.  
“Just because of my status, of my parent’s stations, I could never be more. People would always look down on me! Always using me for a payment of pain,” Matsumoto looks young again, when he sinks down to rest his elbows and arms on the railing, gaze so very far away, “And I found strength from nowhere to break away from all that. Maybe I was a coward to flee. But I do not want to be bound to a system which only hurts people like me: That majority of people of lower status.” Suddenly, Matsumoto turns to look Sho straight in the eye, “Just for the rich to be richer, mightier, freer to do whatever they want. Such a world is not just.”  
First, Sho thinks the anger he sees in Matsumoto’s dark eyes is aimed at him, because is he not that minority of rich people? Does his family not have so much money they do not know what to do with it? Does his family not abuse those of lower station?  
But then he realises that Matsumoto is not angry at Sho, as if he is the one doing these things, no, Matsumoto is furious at the system, and he tries to share that anger, convey it to Sho. To show Sho exactly what it is his family, his society is doing to Sho. As if to clarify exactly what kind of world Sho has been living in, all these years.  
To show the contrast of Sho’s world, against Matsumoto’s – the one he offers here, on this ship.  
A world he offers just because he _wants_ to. Not because someone is telling him, forcing him, to hire Sho to his crew, to have Sho sail with them and help them against Sho’s will.  
Had Matsumoto been bound to any rules, he would have killed Sho before his crew plundered Daylight. Hell, Matsumoto would have his sharpshooter end Sho, just like he ended Shibayama. He would have blown Daylight to pieces, sent Sho’s remains back to his family at a ransom.  
And yes, Sho still hates Matsumoto and his pirates for destroying Sho’s colleagues, his friends, his ship, his dream. But Sho is slowly starting to question that dream. The reality of it.  
Matsumoto grew up in the low part of society, most likely fighting his way up, into the navy, only to become the underdog.  
The pain in the man’s eyes shows that life has not been easy. He was not some thief from the streets, some criminal who could not follow the rules, who fought just to fight, who bit the hand the fed him. No, Matsumoto Jun was someone who truly tried to live in the society they have all established in Japan.  
But Sho knows, he has learned that status will always get in the way of things, status will always define who you are and what you can do. Your family’s status, the status of your ancestors, there is little you can do to change your destiny in a world such as that, a world affected and defined by violence and a twisted balance of power. Whether you are rich or poor, your future is decided as soon as you are born.  
Matsumoto sighs deeply, the tension vanishing from his shoulders, and when he smiles, Sho thinks he has just learned a lot about this man who grew to become a feared pirate captain by power of will,  
“But who am I to tell you all this, Sakurai-san? You do not strike me as someone who would let such a society brainwash you. I am sure you already know all this,”  
The image before Sho is enough to take his breath away.  
Matsumoto is resting his head on the railing, eyes shining along with the stars as he aims them at Sho, those beauty marks of his in patterns as stunning as the constellations above, his whole being vibrating with happiness and peace from obtaining bliss, with no ropes to bind him or hold him down. Not anymore.  
This being, Sho observes, is not cruel, not towards others, he would never force his will and his dreams over the head of another, he would choose to only share and offer the pleasure he has found. He would never force Sho to do anything.  
Sho feels his fingers twitch, yearning to touch the face of the lovely, lovely creature which has Sho forgetting the view of their surroundings, only seeing him. Despite the allure of the sky, of the water and the stars, it all fades in comparison to this person who has found himself, and who is offering Sho the same.  
Sho’s walls are crumbling, his resolve uncertain. The ground on which he has built his beliefs, his dreams, his opinions is unstable, making him question everything he has fought for, stood for. Was any of it real?  
But then Matsumoto’s smile grows and he straightens up again, moving into Sho’s space so unexpectedly that Sho is momentarily stunned, eyes growing wide.  
“People do not change from one day to the other. It takes time to understand the world. Especially if you have been living inside a cage, with no means to look beyond your walls,” Matsumoto raises his hand to caress Sho’s face, only with the tips of his ringed fingers, but he is so warm, “You have time, Sho. To break away from the role forced upon you. If you want to. Here, no one compels you to do anything.” His touch moves from eyebrow to jaw before he steps back, his quiet smile completely unreadable.  
Then he turns away, leaving Sho to burn after his touch, to grasp that faithful railing to try and regain his foothold on the spinning ground beneath him.  
And Sho is alone, his beliefs and his dreams stripped away, exposing him.  
Now, he only yearns to feel that touch again, for it to steady him, as he is now robbed of his vision, moving blindly.  
Sho finds he no longer knows what he wants, whether anything he ever did was for himself. Whether he truly dreamt of that reputation, that glory he would get with Daylight.  
Was any of it even his dream? Or was it his father’s? That of his society?  
And would it even have meant anything? For him? For his family?  
Suddenly, it all seems pointless to Sho, a revelation knocking the air from his lungs, rendering him breathless.

*

“If we keep steering towards the pass here,” he points to a spot on his maps, circles a patch of dark blue paint, “We should reach Singapore in about two weeks. Give or take a few days. Remarkable will handle the rest of this journey no problem.”  
Shota hums beside him and straightens up, nodding in agreement.  
Jun shares his plans with his first mate not because the man would be able to add anything – he has no experience in navigating – but to let him know Jun’s course of action. If Shota knows what Jun wants, how he wants it done, he can – without necessarily asking Jun – carry out orders to the crew in order to obtain whatever wish Jun has, and in the best way possible.  
The two of them has been working like this for two years, and with the knowledge of each other’s personalities and ways of doing things, they form quite a capable team.  
Also, Jun is probably the only one who can handle the constantly angry-looking first mate. He is the only one who knows how shy Shota actually is.  
“And what are your plans for the navy captain?” Shota asks then.  
There is spite in his words, Jun can hear it, no matter how much Shota tries to disguise the scorn. It is there, in his eyes.  
Jun sighs, “You know what my plans are, Shota-san. If he wants to, I will have him join our crew. I need a navigator. I cannot do this myself.”  
“You handle it just fine.”  
“Yes, _fine_. Not great,” Jun shoots the man a stern look, “Finding someone to work for us with a brain even half as good as Sakurai’s is close to impossible. You know that as well as I.”  
“But he works for the government.”  
“Work _ed_. We are not certain he does so anymore.”  
Jun is not sure whether this is just his biased wishful thinking. Before his talk with the officer last night, he honestly had little hope of getting anywhere in changing the man’s way of seeing things. To Jun, Sakurai is the most stubborn person he has ever met. Stubborn and bull-headed.  
But what he saw in Sakurai’s eyes was no lie. So far, Jun has had a hard time reading the man, but what he saw then was uncertainty and doubt, insecurity, Jun never thought he would ever witness in Sakurai’s strong gaze.  
And that gave Jun hope of being able to change him.  
It will take a while, definitely, because a man like Sho is not so easily swayed in his beliefs. Not with his history, his background.  
Jun wonders whether there will be enough time.  
The fact that Ninomiya and Aiba have so easily fallen into their roles here, enjoying what they do, is helping a lot though, since they indirectly show Sakurai how much previous navy officers can come to like being on Remarkable, despite what the pirates did to their previous ship.  
\- Or, at least Jun wants to believe that what he sees in their smiling faces is reality, and not some farce they are pulling on him and his crew, led by Sakurai behind the curtain.  
Here, they are bound to a set of rules, they can understand and accept.  
On Remarkable, everyone gets a share of the haul, everyone is playing a part and getting almost an equal wage. No matter their station, their past, their future.  
Their posts are not decided by law or by prejudice. Jun chooses the job he gives them based on their abilities, their strengths. You earn as much as you work for. And no one is unfairly treated.  
Not even a captive.  
Jun hopes, _prays_ , that Sho will come to see this.  
He glances at the heavy, silver ring on his middle finger, twirls it slightly as he remembers the tickle in his fingertips when he touched Sho’s cheek. It was a bold move, and half-way through, Jun had realised how grave the outcome could have been. If Sho had stepped away, refused it.  
But he did not.  
And it left Jun off balance, confused. Though somehow bolder. Maybe he should try something even more daring next time.  
There is a swift knock on the door.  
_Oh?_  
“Yes?”  
As if on cue, the subject of his thoughts enter his quarters.  
His hair is a lot messier than when Jun first saw him, salt and wind tousling his black locks, having them wave a little stiffly around the sides of his face. And it pleases Jun to see how his cheeks have filled out a bit, in reaction to all the food Jun has offered him. Seems he has dutifully accepted it. There is also a warmer glow to his face, and Jun doubts Sho has himself realised it – how much healthier he looks on Remarkable. Is he happier here, perhaps?  
The thought makes a flutter set off in Jun’s chest.  
But that tinge of hope is short-lived, when Jun notices the steel in Sho’s eyes, flinty as they zero right in on Jun.  
“Matsumoto-san.” He greets curtly, gaze flickering quickly to Shota, with no other form of acknowledgment, “We need to talk.”  
Jun really cannot help but raise an eyebrow.  
He dares to make demands of the captain?  
Must be due to Sho’s own past of being top dog. He has yet to learn how to address a superior. Or he just does not want to.  
Despite of this, Jun nods to Shota, meets his eyes and silently asks him to leave.  
Sakurai has not removed his stare from Jun, when the Jun looks back at him. His hands are balled to fists at his sides, his mouth set in a thin line.  
Jun’s heart starts beating rapidly.  
And when Sho steps closer to his desk, as soon as Shota closes the door behind him, Jun starts to sense that something has gone terribly wrong, his eyes inevitably flickering to Sakurai’s palms landing on his table-top, slowly, ominously.  
Despite the wood as a barrier between them, Jun feels truly intimidated by the man for the first time, finally witnessing real, hot anger emanating from Sakurai in heavy waves.  
Sakurai’s voice is a low growl when he finally speaks again,  
“Ohno-san is the sharpshooter.”  
Perhaps, during these two months with Sakurai on his ship, despite what Jun just thought, he has not learned anything about the man at all. Is he still so far from knowing him, that Sakurai can make Jun this anxious?  
“Sakurai-san…”  
“Why!?”  
Jun blinks. Momentarily stunned.  
“Why didn’t you kill me?”  
Jun actually finds that he cannot answer, “I don’t-”  
“Why didn’t you kill me, Matsumoto?!”  
There is pain in his voice, frustration behind those angry words, and maybe that is why Jun feels such a big lump in his throat, such an obscurity, rendering him unable to answer Sho.  
It is not strange, that this man in front of Jun is so utterly confused. Jun has not made it very easy for him. Not at all.  
“Why…” Sho’s voice breaks, and that hardness in his eyes softens, “Why did you kill Shibayama, and not me? Why did you keep me alive, when you could have so easily…” he takes a deep breath, fighting to collect himself, “You told Ohno-san to keep me alive.”  
“I wanted to see you for myself.” That is the easy answer. “I wanted to see what this famous Sakurai Sho looked like. Whether he was as young and obstinate as people said he was.”  
Jun’s answer does not take the confusion away from Sho’s eyes, does not make his shoulders less tense and his breathing less laboured.  
The answer to why Matsumoto has kept Sho alive _after_ their first meeting, is of an entirely different level of difficulty, an explanation which is close to impossible for Jun to give. Since he still does not know it himself. He has not reached that answer, and thus cannot give it to Sho.  
So he hopes that the officer is too caught up in the first problem, in his sorrow of losing an important friend that he will not ask this other question yet.  
Hopefully, Jun will then know the answer later, when he comes to ask.  
Jun continues with a shrug which is way more nonchalant than he feels, “And I guess he did live up to his reputation. You sure are hard to handle. Talking to me this rudely, despite me being your captain.”  
“You are not my captain.”  
The words sting more than Jun lets Sho know.  
“Really, Sakurai, how long must we keep fighting like this?”  
Some of the stiffness goes out of Sho’s angled shoulders, and he falls back on his heels, removing his hands from Jun’s heavy table, only for him to clench them again, tensely, anxiously. Perhaps taken aback by the exhaustion in Jun’s voice.  
Sho looks like someone who is lost, a child fighting desperately to protect himself from being hurt,  
“It was cruel of you to keep me alive. A captain goes down with his ship. Anything else is disgraceful.” His voice is ice.  
Jun’s nostrils flare. Did Sho not listen to a word he said last night?  
“Disgraceful! What is your definition of honour, huh Sakurai?” Jun’s own anger spikes, and he stands up so fast that the chair behind him falls over with a loud bang.  
He scowls across the desk, straight into Sho’s eyes with the same ire as is mirrored in Sho’s almost black eyes,  
“Are you a failure if you do not follow your father’s rules, huh?! Are you a disgrace if you do not bring back treasures to those bastards hungering for more power, more gold? Those bastards who are the _real_ thieves, the real criminals, stealing everything that people own, for their own pleasure. Do you want to be like them? _Do you?_ To exploit the people who are too weak to fight back? To surround yourself with men who are as fucking _vain_ as you apparently want to be!” Jun’s voice has risen to a yell, urged on by a momentum, “If so, be my guest! But do it from the bottom of the sea, will you. I do not want a worthless government _scum_ on my ship. You make me sick.”  
For a few seconds, the navy captain does not move. He seems frozen in place, stunned at the force of Jun’s words.  
The pirate is breathing fast, feeling the sting of angry tears in the corners of his eyes, refusing to let them fall. He will not show this man weakness. This man he tried so persistently to liberate from the brainwashing his country has done to him. Jun cannot forgive him for refusing to break his own chains.  
He trusted Sho’s better judgement.  
But he was clearly wrong to give this man so much, to show him Jun’s own world, share his beliefs.  
For the second time, Jun feels the cold bitterness of choosing the wrong person to trust so blindly.  
Then, Sho’s mouth curls into a snarl, making him look like a predator, close to tearing the source of his fury apart, “Damn you, Matsumoto-!”  
Jun braces himself by moving away from his deck, taking one step back and creating space for a fight.  
The door opens.  
“Hey, um guys.”  
Recognizing the voice instantly, Jun curses silently.  
If that imp is daring to break up their fight, Jun cannot promise he will not break the man’s neck when he attempts to do so.  
Only very briefly does Jun let his focus flicker to the small man at the door, witnessing Sho turning around very fast to take in the one guilty of disturbing them.  
“Not now, Nino.” Sho says, and it is clear that he is leaving no room for objection or further inquiries.  
Jun briefly wonders whether Sho is so angry that he could tear Ninomiya apart too, should he come between them.  
“Yes _now_. Guys, save your fight for later. We have a navy ship on our heels.”

*

There had been no time for Jun to keep an eye on Sakurai during the stressful hours of outrunning the dark navy ship coming at them at too high a speed. And thus no way for him to know what Sakurai was up to during it all, whether he was planning to sabotage Jun in some way, mess with the sails or the crew.  
Surprisingly, nothing had seemingly happened, and Remarkable had gotten out of the pinch unharmed and in one piece.  
Satoshi had informed Jun of the ship’s name: Endeavour, and along with that name, Jun had known he was up against the experienced Captain Nagase, known for having sunk hundreds of pirate ships during his 15 years as captain of his ship.  
There was no way Jun would have allowed that guy to come even remotely closer to his Remarkable. So he had asked the crew to furl the sails, turn the ship around and towards the Gulf of Thailand, with plans of losing Nagase along the way. And he succeeded, throwing the bigger navy ship off balance by turning so sharply to starboard, gaining speed faster than Endeavour, and afterwards throwing her off in the narrower waters. All accomplished with a damaged hull from their encounter with The Daylight.  
That small detour has cost Jun some time, and an extra couple of days to Singapore.  
The captain is now once more bent over his maps, a brush in his hand and his compass in the other. He has not greeted Sakurai on deck for a few days, staying mostly in his quarters and letting Shota carry out most of his orders.  
Jun hates when his plans do not work out, when he is delayed.  
Every extra day on sea before reaching Singapore, brings him and his crew in danger. More and more pirates will come to know about the sinking of Daylight, of her treasures which are most likely on board Remarkable now ( _they are_ ) and only the stupid ones will hesitate to try and catch Remarkable before she reaches Singapore.  
And Jun does not like it. This haul is his, and he will not hand it over to anyone else.  
Despite the delay and the extra days it gives Sakurai to consider his options, Jun is worried. The captain was mostly by the wheel during the run from Nagase, and thus he did not know what Sakurai did during that time. Whether he was helping a station, whether he was below deck, planning a coup with Ninomiya and Aiba.  
Jun absolutely does not know where he has the man right now. Not after the heated fight in his quarters, not after Sakurai reacted so negatively to Jun laying out his thoughts, his deepest desires and opinions to him.  
Jun feels as if he needed to play with open cards, and so he did. Now, Jun is constantly worrying that he overdid it. And the risk of it leading to losing a possible navigator is one thing, but the extent of Jun’s anxiety reaches beyond that.  
To a point Jun is not sure he wants to explore. There is no way he can go there.  
The desperate wish to have Sho on board is most likely no longer only due to the advantage his abilities could bring.  
Jun sighs deeply and ruffles his hair in frustration, not caring that he messes up the styling he did just a few hours ago. Who cares about looks when there is this person on his ship who keeps on invading his thoughts, with no way for Jun to solve the issue? When he does not know how to.  
Seriously, he needs to get laid. The whores at the port of Singapore are too far away.

*

Sho cannot blame Ohno for anything. Not with the way he has inevitably come to like the quiet, airheaded sharpshooter.  
Matsumoto was the one to keep his true identity a secret, Matsumoto was the one to give out the order to Ohno, Matsumoto was the one who chose his subordinate’s course of action.  
And thus, Sho cannot understand why it makes him so angry to be around Ohno. Why it annoys him and makes him snap at the man, who has no reason to be snapped at, since he is only doing his job by helping Sho oil the ship, tie the ropes, repair the holes in their fishing nets.  
Ohno chooses to be by Sho’s side when he is doing these small odd jobs, without voicing any kind of annoyance at being down on deck when he could relax in his crow’s nest. He does not say it, but he is doing it for Sho to be free of Matsuda – Nino told Sho as much in a quiet whisper over lunch, making sure Ohno did not hear.  
Of course, having Ohno look after Sho also enables the first mate to carry out all the orders the captain is too lazy to handle himself.  
After the near-clash with the navy warship, Matsumoto has been holed up in his quarters for two days, only coming out at night to gaze at the stars – which has Sho tiptoeing back to his quarters when he happens to want a breath of fresh air and finds the captain there.  
Sho knows he is being a coward for avoiding Matsumoto. But he does not want a fight like the one they had last time.  
Since, not only did it hurt Sho, hearing Matsumoto tell him the things he did, accuse him for being on the governments’ side, but it Matsumoto hurt too. Sho saw it in his eyes.  
And that painful expression haunts Sho at night, forces him to get out of bed to stare at the sky and the sea for a few hours. Sho does not feel more peaceful afterwards, but sometimes, he feels exhausted enough before dawn to get back and get a few hours of troubled sleep.  
Sho does not know why it affects him so much, why it keeps bugging him that he made Matsumoto look like that. The usually stoic Matsumoto Jun wearing such a sad expression, full of hurt and something else. Like he could not quite comprehend that Sho was actually saying such things to him.  
Sho hates himself for feeling so guilty.  
But why would he not be confused and guilty for being saved while the rest of his crew was blown to bits by Matsumoto and his pirates? Why was it so wrong for Sho to question Matsumoto’s agenda?  
Why did his beautiful face turn to look so dark when Sho demanded answers?  
Is Sho the one who is in the wrong?  
Of course Sho is dizzy, when his initial image of pirates, his initial idea of Matsumoto’s reason for keeping him alive is clashing with what Matsumoto tells him, shows him, explains to him. The two does not fit together, and Sho is trying and failing at coming up with the right answer to what reality is.  
Is Matsumoto lying? Does he have other plans? Would that night, when he seemed to be shining under the stars be part of a farce too? Would he go that far?  
Sho’s father would say yes. His education and his society would say yes.  
But what about the world Matsumoto tells Sho is also out there? A world of freedom and no bounds. Would that world tell Sho that what Matsumoto is showing him has been the truth from the very beginning?  
Suddenly, Sho roars and harshly shoves the fishing net he was working on, down at his feet,  
“This is just impossible!”  
From beside him, Ohno does not even blink at Sho’s outburst. Maybe he is used to it by now.  
“No it is not.”  
Turning his head sharply at the man sitting on a crate beside Sho, Sho snarls,  
“I do not care anymore.”  
Sho has always relied on his instincts and his wits to tell him the best course of action. It has always been the books and the theory and the knowledge which has guided him in his decisions, his way of living.  
And when none of that is helping him, he does not know what to do. What to rely on.  
There is no way he can voice out his concerns to Ohno, no way he could tell Aiba – none of them would understand. One would be ignorant and blink stupidly, the other would be over-positive about it and grin like a madman. And there is absolutely no way Sho would tell Nino.  
Because Nino would know what is wrong. And Nino would give Sho answers Sho would not like.  
So what options does that leave Sho with?  
His confusion left him helping the pirates fleeing from the navy ship. He _betrayed_ those on whose side he is supposed to be on.  
When Matsumoto roared his orders to furl the sails, secure and tie the ropes, prepare the cannons, Sho was amongst the crew, carrying cannonballs to Aiba, only to get soot on his arms and his face. And he did not stop to consider what he was doing. He did not ask himself what was morally right. He only felt the thrill of the run, the will to win.  
And when they were safe, when they were sure the navy ship had given up on the pursuit, Sho had breathed a sigh of relief, had looked towards Matsumoto at the wheel to see the man’s relieved grin.  
And where does that leave Sho now? In which camp?

*

The city of Singapore is an island of prosperity in South East Asia, its location ideal for the trades taking place in the port at the Singapore Strait, which is growing by the year, expanding and attracting more and more people; merchants and tailors, smiths and farmers, all looking to buy and sell their wares.  
The location and the people inhabiting the island makes the surrounding waters the most dangerous for navy ships. Because the traders here are not only Singaporeans. Most people are pirates, selling their stolen goods to the highest bidder, trading their silver for repairs and whores and silks.  
The port is famous for hiding pirates in its deep waters, and should anyone try to penetrate and rid the city of the criminals, it will turn into a fortress, everyone working together to destroy the government ships that get too close.  
No one is interested in the government meddling with their business.  
No vessels but pirate ships can sail these waters.  
Jun gazes out his window, takes in the dark, brooding city, defined by theft and opium and prostitution, and he feels the adrenaline rising in him. As soon as they anchor, he will make his way through the many stalls on the docks, looking for a buyer of his goods, looking for the one who will pay him the most.  
While he does that, Shota will walk along the line of docked ships, searching for a proper carpender to make repairs on Remarkable. Someone reliable.  
Over the years, Jun and his first mate have come to know a few shipwrights, the truly skilled ones. And they may not be as cheap as some are, but Jun will not compromise when it concerns his ship.  
If they are lucky enough to find Oguri Shun in Singapore, Jun can expect Remarkable to be ready to depart again in less than two weeks, probably in better shape than she has been for a long time.  
And during those two weeks, Jun and his crew will have a much deserved break, getting so drunk on alcohol and women that they will not be too sad to depart from it when they leave again.  
Jun has no control over how his crew spends their wages, how they spend their share of the loot from Sakurai’s ship, and from experience, he knows that most of them will waste it away in those two weeks.  
On the other hand, the captain himself will only spend a small portion, locking the rest away in his hidden box, saving it for a time of need. For the present, Jun has no plans for the storage he has saved up over the years, but at some point he is sure an opportunity will show itself, and he will be glad he saved up the money.  
Besides, the only thing Jun will waste money on here are new garments and a bit of expensive sake. The women he can get for free.  
Well-known footsteps by his open door announces Shota’s presence.  
“Captain, the ship will be ready to dock in less than five minutes. Ohno-san tells me your favourite spot by the fruitstall is free.”  
Jun turns away from the growing city in front of him, smiling at his first mate,  
“Perfect. Tell the crew to be ready to tie up the ship and lower the anchor. As soon as the ship is secured, you and I will go on our necessary errands. I want the rest of the crew to stay here until then. No one is to leave and waste the money before it is earned. Got it?”  
Shota bows his head obediently, and Jun can see the suppressed smile in his eyes. He looks forward to having land beneath his feet again too, “Whom do you want in command then captain? We need someone to keep an eye on the crew while the two of us are gone.”  
Yesterday night, Jun came up with the answer to this issue. For once, he did not consult the stars – he was afraid to come upon more complications, should he leave his quarters – , but stayed in his cabin in the flickering light of his candles, pondering upon two problems at once. With no stars and no full lips to distract him, he had come up with a solution to both at the same time.  
It is a risky choice he has made, but the test is inevitable at this point. Now in Singapore, the time is up, and Jun will come to know what will happen to that one last navy officer on board.  
Jun takes a deep breath and walks a couple of steps closer to Shota, “Now, promise to hear me out before you interrupt me, ok? I want the three navies to keep an eye on the crew.”  
“WHAT! Matsumoto-kun, are you crazy?!”  
“Please, hear me out.” Jun pleads, eyes fixed on Shota’s incredulous expression and clasps a hand down on his shoulder, “I need to figure out if I can trust these men. And this is the last chance, I have got. The only solution. Look, if they try anything funny, don’t you think Ueda-san and the others would not hesitate to knock them out? If the crew stays on the ship, as ordered, there is no risk of Sakurai and his friends stealing Remarkable. And if I give them the order of keeping the rest of the crew on deck, don’t you think it’ll keep them too busy to try and flee? We would know instantly if such a thing happened anyway.”  
In Singapore, almost everyone knows how Remarkable looks, everyone knows Jun and everyone knows Shota. Should they witness Remarkable leaving port suspiciously early or happen to see three unknown men leaving the ship, word would surely spread and in a matter of minutes that word would reach either Jun or Shota.  
Jun is not afraid of the risk of leaving Sho to this. Additionally, he cannot imagine Ninomiya wanting to leave what he has found here. It seems he and Satoshi have ended up being rather close. Which also makes Jun reluctant to see Nino go, on Satoshi’s behalf.  
The small man does not easily make friends – with his quiet and secretive exterior, he is hard to get to know. For Ninomiya to so easily break through his shell, Jun is grateful to him.  
“Matsumoto-kun…” the first mate furrows his brows and shifts on his feet, “This is risky.”  
But Jun just nods, “It is.”  
“But you are sure of this.”  
“I am.”  
With that, Shota slumps and sighs. There is nothing he can do to change Jun’s mind anyway,  
“You know, sometimes, I do not get this will of yours to do outrageous things. Always pushing it.”  
When Jun knows he has won and has convinced his friend, he cannot help the self-satisfied smirk, “You know me. No challenges will just have me end up being bored.”  
Surprisingly Shota’s eyebrow shoots up then, making Jun wonder what he said that has Shota gaining such a grin on his face for a few seconds. Only when the man is sufficiently smug about something or feels particularly cruel, does he smile like that.  
“You are right. The more challenging, the better.”  
“Hey, what does that creepy grin of yours mean? What are you thinking? Oi! Shota!”  
But Shota has already stepped away from Jun again, walking towards the door, not in the least looking like he is going to indulge Jun in anything,  
“The crew is waiting, Captain. We better get ready to invade Singapore. I am sure Kiko-chan is waiting for you.”  
Jun can only scoff and roll his eyes.


	5. Chapter 5

When the captain and his first mate leaves, Sho cannot believe his eyes, cannot believe they are leaving their ship and its crew to three possibly still hostile _government scum_ , as Matsumoto so accurately called them.  
Matsumoto cannot possibly think he can trust them, can he?  
Sho is incredulous, utterly mortified. It does not even occur to him to try and flee first thing, because this decision is just too damn outrageous?  
Sho knows he never would have trusted Matsumoto like this, had their roles been reversed. It is just too much of a gamble.  
Is Matsumoto crazy?  
The man does not look crazy as he smiles shortly at Sho, nodding his head after giving Sho the order. If anything, his eyes still seem a little sad as they dwell on Sho for a moment longer than they did on Nino and Aiba.  
“I am choosing to trust you, Sho-san,” he says, and what is up with that intimate way of addressing Sho? The officer does not know how to react to that, “I told you, I am not forcing you into anything, but I am giving you a choice. This is the optimal way for you to give me an answer.”  
Letting his eyes quickly slide over Matsumoto’s neatly styled brown hair, his white skin, his gorgeous coat and tight pants, Sho decides to at least carve this sight into his memory for now. Just in case something happens which will leave him unable to see Matsumoto again.  
There is that tingle in Sho’s hand again, the urge to run his fingers over the dark beauty marks around Matsumoto’s mouth, to mirror what Matsumoto did to Sho a couple of weeks ago, when his eyes catch Matsumoto’s lingering stare, those curious, expressive eyes. Sho considers whether it is too late now. Since the two of them have not spoken or shared a similar moment for 16 days. And then there was that scene in Matsumoto’s quarters.  
The captain nods again and the moment is broken. He tries to smile encouragingly, but Sho easily sees his anxiety beneath the pretence.  
Is Matsumoto afraid that Sho is going to leave and do something stupid?  
Would the possibility of such an outcome normally leave someone looking this fearful?  
Once more, Sho witnesses a glimpse of purity in Matsumoto, something one would not expect to find in a pirate captain, a certain childish innocence; hoping for a certain outcome.  
Though that wish is also part of a childish fantasy.  
Sho clenches his jaw, watching the two pirates walk down the gangway, Matsumoto with those loose, swaying hips of his. And he makes up his mind.

*

Upon visiting a few shops and trading ships along the docks, Jun finally sets up a deal with a couple of merchants to come take a look at all the things in Remarkable’s hold come morning. That will leave Jun with plenty of time to himself tonight and for some of the crew to rearrange and make sure only the things they are interested in selling are on display below. Which is most of it.  
Only a few things have been moved away to be used on Remarkable, such as Sho’s cannons, his artillery, the gunpowder and the bullets as well as thread and needles; useful items for smaller repairs on a ship.  
A few of the gems, Jun has taken away for himself too; he found a couple of silver rings which caught his fancy, as well as a few simple, yet valuable piercings. Maybe these will find their use at some point. Jun has considered handing the platinum stud to Shota. For his birthday maybe.  
Jun has never been interested in having piercings himself, so they will be saved for those who want them. It is a pirate thing afterall.  
Darkness has settled over Singapore during the few hours Jun spent searching for buyers. As he did stop a few times along the way for a brief talk and a drink with some acquaintances, it took him longer than it normally would have. But Jun did expect to take this long. For a pirate, it is important to socialize and freshen up relationships when one can.  
These relationships can easily end up determining the outcome of feuds, wars, life and death situations, and thus, Jun knows how important they are.  
Moreover, Jun has always been good at being liked, something which has inevitably brought him this far.  
At this time of the evening, Singapore is bustling with life. All around Jun, there are noises of people shouting, people laughing and burping, sharing food and rum with one another as well as stories and tales. Most of the small stalls are recognizable for Jun; the wine-seller, the jewelry merchant, the various bars, some where people come to drink, some where they can easily share their opium, some where they play games for their hard-earned money, or money they do not have.  
But Jun does not frequent these places, and has no plans of doing so today either. He is heading straight for the brothel, looking forward to see Kou-chan – the owner – as well as Kiko again.  
The latter was someone Jun instantly took a liking to when she had just started working at the place, still a virgin and pure as snow. Seeing her nervous, flittering eyes, her red, pouty lips formed in a small O as she breathed heavily, Jun knew he had to have her before anyone else did.  
He was her first and ever since then, he has never had to pay for her, the two of them more than just having a buyer-seller relationship. Jun might even go as far as to call her an old friend.  
Though, today Jun cannot feel the usual thrill when he steps through the doors of ‘The Pearl’. Telling himself the fluttering in his stomach will appear as soon as he sees Kiko, he pushes the concerning insecurity away and makes his way towards the counter, straightening his back just a little more than usual, making a scene out of walking confidently towards Shibasaki Kou’s slim back which is facing him. And as soon as she turns around, he puts on his most stunning smile,  
“Matsumoto-kun!” she beams and instantly stands on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek, “It has been too long since I last saw you. They tell me you bring quite the haul this time!”  
Her eyes sparkle at the prospect of great gossip, and Jun almost gives in. But he has cravings he needs to satisfy first, and thus he shakes his head before shifting his eyes to look around the place.  
The room has a dim, calming glow of orange, the only source of light here being a hundred candles placed along the walls and on the wooden tables. Thick, wooden pillars are supporting the roof and the second floor balcony, of where the whores are standing either on display or to watch the scenarios taking place below.  
Whores are very curious, Jun has come to learn, but maybe that is just a women’s thing.  
The place offers a few beverages too, though most of them are cheap and sour, and only serving the poorest or most desperate of customers. Nevertheless, they are sometimes used to attract customers who then end up paying for a quick blow or a kiss.  
Jun has never been that desperate. He would usually come her for the company, for Kiko or for Kou, sometimes staying just to chat.  
“Perhaps another time, Kou-chan,” he smiles, “Have you seen…?”  
“Kiko-chan?” the woman smiles knowingly and cradles Jun’s cheek briefly with affection, “As soon as she heard you were coming, she refused to take any other customers. She should be around here somewhere.”  
Jun thanks her and gives her hand a squeeze before moving further into the softly lit building. As his eyes wander around the tables where a few other pirates are sitting, women in their laps or by their sides, there is a drop in his stomach, a feeling of unease he cannot quite place. For a brief moment, before he can stop himself, it is almost as if he feels bad about being here, as if it is wrong.  
But why should it be, he asks himself and shakes away the momentary thought. He is not paying to be here, he is visiting a friend, satisfying a perfectly normal craving, just like the other merchants who come to Singapore to earn and spend money. If anything, Jun feels quite a bit more dignified than most of the men here.  
Kiko has told him some outrageous stories of some of the customers too, funny and unbelievable stories which have left the two of them giggling quietly in the night.  
It is that sort of comfort Jun seeks as well. Or at least that is what he tells himself when he finally spots Kiko’s small figure, the ivory black hair and her full lips.  
Jun remains standing in the middle of the room, coming to lean on a pillar with his arms crossed until she finally sees him, and he takes pleasure in the way her face lights up, grinning when she jumps forward in excitement,  
“Jun-kun!” she shrills in her light voice and soon she comes flying into his arms, her frame perhaps even lighter than last time Jun held her.  
“You have become so skinny, are they feeding you enough?” he asks as he leans back to study her pretty face, cradling it in his hands.  
But she just laughs and tosses her hair haughtily, “I exercise a lot,” she boasts, and then she leans forward to kiss him, boldly and without hesitation.  
And Jun feels his heart sinking, again bringing along that horribly guilty sensation he cannot understand, once more trying to push it away when he mirrors Kiko’s smile.  
“I missed you,” she says, but Jun feels fake when he agrees,  
“I missed you too, Kiko-chan.”  
He did miss her, he is not lying. But there is clearly something wrong with him, the usual fire he feels upon studying her lithe body, her energetic face is not there. Oddly enough, because she is stunning tonight in her red, silk dress, wearing silver earrings sparkling along with her big, brown eyes.  
“So, did you come here to tell me about your newest adventures?” she asks as she wraps her arms around his neck, clearly not sensing his inner distress, “Someone is saying that you brought a navy officer along with you to Singapore. Is that really true?”  
There is no way he can disguise the way his stomach drops then, no longer able to smile at all at Kiko’s words, and suddenly he feels afraid, the terror growing as the girl continues,  
“I was quite concerned when I heard it, because it is so dangerous to bring someone like that here. I told those people that you must be bringing him along in the hull, all chained up in a cell. Aren’t I right?”  
“I am sorry, Kiko-chan.”  
Suddenly, every second away from his ship feels dangerous, wrong.  
Kiko finally discovers that Jun is no longer smiling, her face turning concerned, and her confusion only grows when he gingerly removes her hands from his neck. As compensation, he laces their fingers together between them, but the gesture is far from as intimate as the two of them should be by now.  
“I cannot tell you much,” Jun says, and Kiko raises an eyebrow, “But I wanted to come and see you, it _has_ been too long.”  
Kiko does not buy it, Jun can clearly see it in the way her mouth sets into an unsatisfied, thin line. And Jun does not blame her, because he cannot remember ever denying her before.  
“Came to _see_ me? Is that it? What is wrong? You don’t want anything?” she places her palm against his cheek, and she is warm, but it is not what Jun wants, “Don’t you want me?”  
He cannot answer that. He does not want to hurt her.  
But she just asked the essential question, the question Jun refused to ask himself, that one nagging feeling in the back of his head.  
There is something he wants, desperately _needs_. But for once, she cannot give it to him.  
“I…” he struggles to find the right words, “I am afraid I do not have the time tonight, Kiko-chan. But I will come back, there is just so many things I need to fix on the ship before dawn.”  
Lying through his teeth, Jun feels terrible at saying these things to a close friend. There is no way he can tell her the truth he only just discovered himself, it would only put him in danger. And as a matter of fact, there are actually things he needs to fix. Things which need clarification, things to put in order.  
Sho.  
Kiko unlaces their fingers, her face twisting in a mixture of disbelief and hurt, “Right.” Her voice is cold, “I understand. I am glad you came to see me, since you know… You have been gone for half a year.”  
There have been moments where Jun wondered about Kiko’s feelings for him, whether they are only of affection and attraction. And in a situation such as this, when he witnesses how angry and obviously sad she is, he speculates whether it would be for the better to cut the ties.  
He does not want to cause her unnecessary pain.  
“I am sorry.”  
But she refuses him, crosses her arms and takes a step back, “Forget it. I do not know what your deal is, Matsumoto, coming here just to ‘come and see me’. You do know time is money for me, right? Do you know how many customers I could have taken while I waited for you?”  
Not knowing what to say to that, Jun just sighs and furrows his brows. He has no obligations to her. She is the one choosing to refuse money, because she heard he was around.  
No promises have been made between them, they are not married, Kiko is a whore and Jun…  
“I am a pirate, Kiko-chan. You are not bound to me. And I am not bound to you.”  
“No, that is certainly clear to me!” she has raised her voice, attracting Kou’s attention now, but Jun does not let himself get swayed, even when she continues, “Go and _fix_ whatever needs fixing on your ship. And do not come back unless you bring money for the services.”  
At that she turns on her heel, appearing to Jun like little more than an offended teenager. Which only just clarifies the lack of attraction he felt for her just now.  
Yes. There are certainly things he needs to get in order.

Twenty minutes later, Jun stomps his way onto his ship again, a ball of annoyance and built-up frustrations he is not sure what to do with, so full of tension that he even forgets to recognise that his ship is still here, intact, calm and seemingly with the same amount of passengers as when he left her.  
He bulls across the deck, boots thumping on the planks, apparently so loudly that some of the cabin boys jump out of his way and moves behind the masts and barrels, watching him with wide eyes until he opens the door to the stern area, the officers’ quarters, aiming straight for his own cabin.  
Hoping to find a dark corner in his room, Jun wonders how much time it would take him to finish, thinking maybe he will calm down after a quick jerk-off.  
Shota raises his eyebrows at him when he passes by, but otherwise leaves Jun be when he not as much as acknowledges his first mate’s presence. There have been moments before, when Shota has witnessed this side of Jun, often in connection with navigating plans which have not gone perfectly according to Jun’s head, and thus the man makes no move to try and stop Jun in his tracks.  
Usually, Jun can exercise his frustrations out, perhaps shoot a seagull or something, but today, he doubts that sort of thing would work.  
As soon as he makes it to his cabin, he slams the door behind him and starts pacing.  
The faint lights from the city cast weird, dancing shadows across the room, made by Jun’s piles of papers, his books and his various weapons in the corner. The room seems a shade between dark grey and brown, and Jun’s eyes need a few minutes to adjust to the lack of visibility.  
Jun does not mind the lack of light as he quickly goes over various scenarios of what would happen, should someone from his crew barge in and find him with his pants around his ankles, fingers around himself.  
No, that would certainly make that person lose a lot of respect for their captain.  
Then, Jun starts wondering how long it would take him to prepare himself a bath, which would make it a lot easier for him to take care of himself. It does not take him long to realise that he would probably have to get one of the fireplaces going first.  
Jun ends up walking back and forth for so long that someone eventually knocks on his door; two rapid knocks, rather forcefully against the doorframe.  
Jun stops.  
“What!?”  
It better be freaking important, Jun thinks, before the door opens, not a second after his rather harsh permission to enter is given.  
Despite the darkness of his room, Jun instantly recognises the figure in the door, easily makes out those sloping shoulders underneath a blue, golden-buttoned jacket, shadows marking a strong jaw and a set of full, pouty lips, lips much more alluring than Kiko’s.  
The man blinks a few times in the darkness, clearing his throat, “Why don’t you turn on some light?”  
While he reaches to light one of the candles near the door, Jun balls up his fists, takes a step back, preparing himself for the way he knows the flame is going to illuminate Sho’s face, make him even more irresistible than Jun already finds him. The pirate does not want to end up jumping the man as soon as light falls upon him.  
Sho uses a tinderbox to light the candle, eyes moving from the white wax towards Jun as soon as he is done.  
Jun does not know what to say, what do to. When it is staring him right in the face like this, that is when he realises exactly why he would not fuck Kiko, why he did not find her attractive at all. It is impossible, when this other being is standing so strongly in front of him, his face displaying pride and slight dissatisfaction for some reason Jun has yet to learn of.  
“Your ship is still here,” Sho states the obvious and crosses his arms over his chest.  
Jun leans back towards his desk, seeking balance and support from the heavy wood, “I noticed.”  
“But you did not even stop to consider why.”  
Suddenly, Jun smirks. So that is why Sho is here.  
“Oh? Sakurai Sho wants acknowledgement, it seems,” It is Jun’s growing need which is talking now, lacing his voice with smoothness and a slightly mocking edge, “You want praise, because you stayed? Because you did not steal my ship in the dead of the night, while I was away?”  
There is no denying the flicker of annoyance in Sho’s eyes, black as they are in the yellow candlelight, but he does not wave Jun off, does not grow offended. If anything, he just seems to be waiting for the next annoying jest Jun can think of. He tilts his chin slightly upwards, pridefully,  
“Did you enjoy your visit at the whorehouse, Matsumoto?” he asks then, spite lacing his words and Jun tilts his head.  
How come Jun detects such venom in Sho’s words?  
“And if I did?”  
When Sho clenches his jaw, the shadows across his cheeks distort and move.  
“Would you be jealous, huh, Sho-san?” Jun continues, fingers now digging into the wood at his sides. But he can only stop his body from moving, not the words he wants to say, now that he is witnessing those conflicting emotions on Sho’s face.  
“I am _not_ jealous.”  
“No? Are you sure? I can probably set you up with a nice girl there, since you behaved so well tonight.”  
Jun is walking on the edge of a knife, he can feel it, dancing around a fire he should not touch, not get too close to unless he wants to burn.  
There is a cracking in the air, a silent electric current running between them, pulling at each of them, and eventually, Sho is the first one to lose his footing, strength diminished by that something which has turned more and more unpreventable, and it makes him take a step forward, and another, eyes darkening as he moves out of the light.  
Jun realises his breath is becoming shorter, now that his suspicion at the other man is growing, his own attraction crawling across his skin and taking hold of every fibre of his body, gradually growing so much that it will only be a matter of time before he cannot control it anymore.  
“I am not jealous.”  
“I don’t believe you, Sho-san.”  
“So did you fuck her? That _‘friend’_ you have?”  
He cannot help the wide grin when he hears the strain in Sho’s voice, sees how rigid his biceps are, taut in the tight jacket.  
The man should know better than to dress in his navy clothes in a place such as this, on a pirate island, but somehow, Jun knows it is done as one last provoking gesture towards the pirate captain. One last way of showing that he is not afraid of Jun and the consequences such an outrageous action could have, that he does not give a fuck about being a pirate.  
But oh, he does, doesn’t he, Jun perceives.  
Sho stayed here, Sho kept an eye on the crew, he followed Jun’s orders. Though, he also came here, to demand some recognition, some answers.  
Answers, a subordinate is not entitled to ask for.  
Jun narrows his eyes when Sho does not stop moving towards him, not until there is less than a foot of space between them, and Sho stands firmly in front of Jun, looking down at him.  
Then, Jun tilts his head upwards, consciously licks his lips,  
“No,” he says, voice low, the taunting gone, “I did not.”  
Sho moves fast through the darkness, takes that last step towards Jun and grabs his collar harshly, yanking Jun towards him, so close that their noses almost touch.  
And for just a second, Jun is afraid he misinterpreted everything, that he misunderstood Sho completely.  
But then there is Sho’s warm breath on his face, his breathing shallow and his pupils blown. His voice is a whisper this time.  
“Why didn’t you kill me?”  
When Jun does not answer, just tilts his head slightly, to align their lips and give Sho a perfect angle, a perfect opportunity to close that damn gap between them and just let Jun have a taste of those tempting lips, Sho repeats his question, this time with more vigour, more heat,  
“Why, Jun? Why have you let me live, only to bring me here, to Singapore, to give me free reins alone on your ship?”  
There is fire in Jun’s body, his blood rushing down between his legs furiously at this close proximity between them. He does not want a whore, he does not want Kiko, he wants _this._ Can Sho not see?  
Sho does not seem to be brave enough to make that last move, he wants an answer before anything, and Jun thinks this is so Sho, and really, Jun would not have it any other way.  
And so, Jun swiftly swats Sho’s hands away, only to use the table at his back to set off from, his own hands flying up as they mirror Sho’s previous hold on Jun’s coat, and he pushes Sho against the nearest wall, knocking the air from his lungs. Jun is less shy about it, he is too sure of himself and what he wants now, so he breathes hotly against Sho’s cheek, mouth so close that his lips touch the shell of Sho’s ear and makes him shiver visibly when Jun speaks next,  
“If I killed you, I would not have you here with me right now,” he husks out, voice gravelly from lust, “If I _fucked_ Kiko-chan, I would not have you barging in like this.” Jun can hear Sho’s gasp at that, and Jun just presses closer, letting Sho feel his interest, “I _want_ you. Is that answer enough for you?”  
Instantly, Sho growls, and Jun is honestly so surprised by the aggression when Sho’s hand grabs a quick hold of Jun’s hair to yank him away from Sho’s ear, only to force him forward again, to kiss Jun with such intensity it leaves Jun gasping into Sho’s mouth.  
Jun’s fingers immediately close around the fabric of Sho’s jacket, burying themselves in the softness at Sho’s chest, and he sighs, letting himself feel as soon as the kiss slows down, as the urgency decreases, and the anxiety evaporates.  
There is always a risk at such a step, but now that they are certain they are on equal ground, they can take their time to taste one another, and Sho certainly makes use of the opportunity to tongue Jun’s lips, which Jun in turn answers by tugging on Sho’s fat bottom one. He grins into the kiss when it makes Sho scoff and retaliates by biting at Jun’s upper lip.  
Then Jun breaks away, dragging Sho’s lip with him a little along the way, just to give the other man a small pang of pain, equal to the one Sho just gave Jun’s scalp,  
“Didn’t know you were so impatient, Sakurai-san.” He grins.  
Jun just cannot help the teasing, cannot help the happy tingle in his chest, and thus he makes an unembarrassed little yelp when Sho unabashedly splays a palm over the small of his back and roughly pulls him close again to kiss him, this time not giving up the fervour before Jun opens his mouth to let Sho’s tongue in. Sho is so warm, and Jun soon melts in his arms, letting Sho’s tongue move across his, tasting all of Jun.  
_This._  
This is what he has so been yearning for, that desire reaching its peak now. Jun wonders how long he has been wanting Sho to do this to him.  
Sho breaks away from the kiss, moving to kiss along Jun’s jaw, across to the hollow beneath his ear, and Jun sighs deeply, one hand moving up to bury itself in Sho’s thick hair,  
“Sho…”  
Jun’s body is heating up in anticipation and just then, there is a knock at the door. A very unwelcome knock at that.  
Sho does not stop marking a path along Jun’s smooth skin with his lips, only moving down Jun’s neck to nibble teasingly, occasionally using a little teeth.  
Swallowing with difficulty, Jun tries to chase the person at the door away,  
“Not now!”  
The knocking stops. Only to be replaced by Ninomiya’s voice,  
“But Matsumoto-san, I cannot find Sho-chan. I am afraid he’s abandoned ship after all. Have you seen him?”  
Surprisingly, it makes Sho chuckle against Jun’s throat, before he mischievously bites Jun’s Adam’s Apple, and Jun moans,  
“I- I have not seen him no-” Sho has taken to lick the spot as an apology, but it makes it difficult for Jun to speak, “Just- Just give me a minute, ok?”  
A moment of silence, and Jun thinks Nino has abandoned his mission. He pushes at Sho’s arms, to get him to stop molesting Jun’s neck – Jun fears the amount of marks Sho has left on him already. He then moves in to pay him back by grabbing hold of his upper arms and pushes him back against the wall again, moving his own body flush against Sho’s. And just to be bold, he rolls his hips against Sho’s, creating oh-so delicious friction, and smirks when it makes Sho groan rather loudly.  
“He is there with you, isn’t he?”  
This time, Jun is the one to laugh breathlessly, burying his face in the crook of Sho’s neck when the other man throws a whispered curse at the door.  
“Ok, ok, I get it. Don’t worry, I am such a good man I won’t do anything you would not like me to do, J, until you two are done. Be nice to him ok.”  
“He should tell _you_ to be nice, not the other way around.” Jun breathes out, his words making Sho’s soft skin around his collarbone all damp and hot.  
“Am I really too much for the great pirate captain Matsumoto?”  
The affectionate mockery in Sho’s deep voice makes Jun laugh again, before he grabs Sho’s jaw in his hand, “Shut up.” And brings him in for another deep kiss.

If Sho had known Jun would be this good with his mouth, he would have broken the ice earlier. What the pirate is currently doing to Sho, is something Sho never thought he would be able to feel, even during his wildest fantasies, and it just sticks to prove that pirates may have something other than rum and stinky breath to share with others.  
Surely, with Sho’s family background and his work ethics, there has not been much time for intimacy like this, and Sho has not had many lovers. For Jun to so easily figure out what he likes then, when Sho was not even sure himself, is a feat Sho quickly comes to appreciate a lot.  
Upon realising that he probably would never get a chance to be with someone he feels such attraction to, if he returns to Japan, Sho made up his mind rather easily about staying on Remarkable. Though, it was after all, a talk with Nino which brought him to realise his complicated and essential emotions towards the pirate captain.  
Additionally, Sho immensely likes the thought of Jun leaving the whorehouse without sleeping with his old acquaintance just because he wants to be with Sho, because he wants Sho just as much as Sho wants Jun, perhaps even more so.  
It is evident in the way Jun teases his way across Sho’s stomach, licks and sucks at the skin he exposed only minutes ago when Jun pushed Sho to his bed, crawling over him all agile and feline with fire in those brown eyes of his. The man is a contradiction, all innocent curiosity and a dreamer in one moment, but demanding and daring when he finds the need to be.  
Sho wonders if he will ever get enough as he tugs at Jun’s hair with urgency, and he gasps when Jun suddenly uses his teeth to scrape over one of Sho’s nipples.  
Humming against the sensitive nub, Jun licks it better, bringing up a hand to run it boldly across Sho’s abdomen, rubbing his sides, and Sho’s muscles clench instinctively,  
“Jun-“ Sho hisses, digging his nails into Jun’s lower back, stroking it possessively.  
Sho does not like being the thrashing bottom, but when Jun’s mouth moves lower south, straight towards Sho’s heavy, neglected cock, the navy captain’s breath hitches in anticipation, and he waits, waits for that sinful mouth to just move lower…  
Then Jun stops, only to tongue Sho’s navel enthusiastically, causing Sho’s hips to surge upwards, his back arching. Sho is fisting the soft blankets underneath him in frustration, when Jun breaks the silence between bites into soft flesh,  
“We could place a ring here, to make you more piraty.”  
There is no denying the spikes of pleasure Jun’s molestations give Sho’s sensitive, thin skin, but nevertheless Sho insistently pulls at Jun’s brown, tousled locks, hard, at the same time as he thrusts forward again, trying to no avail to get Jun to move downwards,  
“As a matter of fact,” the pirate just continues, didactically spreading his palm over Sho’s hipbone and pressing him down, “I actually have a piercing which would suit you, and it is even from the ballast of your own ship. I reckon it would be _hot_ ,”  
His breath is sticky on Sho’s belly, and Sho has no brain capacity to process that proposal at all now. Now, when Jun is so stubbornly set on teasing the wit away from Sho.  
Sho pulls Jun’s hair too roughly to get the man’s face upwards, up, in order for Sho to suck on his swollen lips again, to lick those gorgeous beauty marks around Jun’s mouth, to push his tongue against Jun’s. Bold and impatient enough, Sho grabs a hold of Jun’s naked ass with both hands, squeezes, just as he rubs their erections together, and it makes Jun moan so sweetly against Sho’s open mouth that Sho cannot help but smile wickedly.  
Jun is all smooth, hard lines against Sho and despite how much Sho likes seeing him in his pirate wear, he has to admit the man certainly does not look less attractive without clothes. All that fighting with the wheel, the heavy lifting and the running back and forth over the deck has given Jun beautiful lines of muscle across his back, his arms and his stomach.  
With one hand at the side of Jun’s face, thumb stroking his cheekbone, Sho moves the other between them, searching and finding Jun’s hand resting at Sho’s side. And he grabs it, takes it and guides it where Jun apparently could not find his way by himself.  
“Touch me,” Sho asks, voice a strained whisper against Jun’s mouth, and he lets Jun take hold of his cock, gently helping him wrap his long fingers around the hard length.  
Jun’s lips form a cheeky grin, but he finally indulges Sho, palming him even as Sho lets his hand go,  
“Yes-“ Sho throws his head back when Jun starts stroking, feeling how he grows hot in Jun’s hand, “Like that, yes, Jun.”  
“Like this?” Jun moves his thumb over the slit, smearing the precome around Sho’s swollen head, before giving the shaft a bold squeeze.  
Sho’s hips surge forward as he groans loudly, throwing his head back, exposing him perfectly for Jun’s mouth to start sucking on his pulse.  
To think that the pirate captain of Remarkable would be the one to be able to do these things to Sho, it is outrageous in itself, Sho’s rational, conventional side tells him, while this newly found adventurous part of him says _to hell with it_. Sho was rebellious even as a child, so for him to rediscover that side of himself, is that really so weird?  
Jun was right all along; the society has moulded Sho to their desire, in order for him to contribute to a rotting society, and Sho was not strong enough to keep it at bay when he grew out of his teenage body. The inheritance of his father bound him to become as obliging and loyal as the other Sakurais have been before him, but can he not be obliging and loyal to something else? To someone he believes in?  
Suddenly, Jun moves downwards, and Sho’s mind completely blanks out when he sees Jun parting his lips, to take the head of Sho’s cock into his mouth, and hollow his cheeks to give it a long, hard suck.  
Sho gasps and fights to not just thrust up into the inviting heat of Jun’s mouth. Twisting the blankets underneath him, Sho bends one knee to give Jun more room, which Jun gladly accepts by sucking deeper, diligent as he takes more of Sho to the back of his mouth.  
Jun bolts ahead with determination, reducing Sho to a garbled mess when he soon starts to work his throat around Sho’s dick with a vengeance, moving halfway upwards before taking Sho to the hilt again and again, until Sho feels the muscles of Jun’s throat squeezing the tip of his cock. At this point, it is taking all of his willpower not to come, his thighs quaking, his fingers tugging strands of thick hair desperately.  
That is when Jun lets go, when Sho is so close to come that he gasps at the loss of heat, eyes springing open to watch how Jun teasingly moves his mouth away to roll his tongue around the wedge between base and tip,  
“Please,” Sho hears himself moaning faintly, both hands now in Jun’s hair, nails digging over his scalp.  
Jun chuckles breathlessly, and lets go completely with a quiet pop, which makes Sho’s groan in frustration, eyes shooting annoyed daggers, wondering why in the world Jun would stop.  
He is met with an innocent smile, and he cannot help but lick his lips at the sight of Jun below him, the pirate situated on all fours, the muscles of his back rising and falling as he pants, clearly as affected and strung up as Sho is. Sho’s eyes move down between Jun’s legs to shamelessly take in the sight of Jun’s solid cock, aligned with Jun’s lower abdomen and leaking. Had Jun not been between his legs right now, doing things to him, Sho would surely have wanted to steal a taste too. He will save that thought for next time.  
As soon as Jun notices Sho’s staring, a smirk forms on Jun’s lips and he takes himself in hand, encircles the base of his length before spreading the white pearl of pre-come around the tip. He purrs in the back of his throat, and Sho’s eyes narrow when they move back to meet Jun’s heady stare, intently fixed on Sho.  
“Come here,” Sho demands and grabs a firm hold of Jun’s upper arm, pulling him forward demandingly, to turn them around, forcing Jun down against the pillows.  
Sho takes his mouth in his, kisses him with fervour, and with want coursing through his blood, he moves down to substitute Jun’s hands with his own, instantly starting to move his hand up and down in an even pace. He hears how the breath hitches in Jun’s throat, and Sho swallows his moans of appreciation. He feels powerful, for being able to reduce Jun to this, just as Jun is able to tear Sho apart. But it is not enough, not yet.  
Jun feels firm and warm in his hand, soft, but there will be time for further exploration and appreciation later. As on edge and stretched thin as they both are now, it will only be a matter of time before none of them can take it anymore. And Sho wants to feel Jun around him when that happens.  
“Jun,” Sho kisses the side of his face, his ear, “Find me something,”  
As a way of explaining, Sho rubs his damp body up against Jun’s, his hand reluctantly letting go of Jun’s cock to move over his soft, inner thigh, sliding downwards before he grabs a hold and lifts Jun’s leg, asking and exposing at the same time.  
A quiet, short whine gives Sho an indication of Jun’s anticipation, his slowly collapsing ability to think, before the pirate turns with difficulty, reluctant to move too far away from Sho, and he opens the cardboard beside the bed to roam through one of the drawers. Jun grunts quietly in exertion, before he finally finds what he was searching for, presenting Sho with a small, white bottle with a cork put in the slim opening.  
All the while, Sho watches him with lustful eyes, situated on his knees, fingers holding onto Jun’s thighs, eyes occasionally flickering down and taking in Jun’s exposed state which Jun is so willingly presenting to him.  
He wants him so much it almost hurts. He wants to take everything that Jun is willing to offer, everything and a little more, clawing at Jun’s white skin, feeling how he can envelop Sho, and how Sho can stretch and give in return. It is only fair, Sho thinks, with all that Jun has put him through.  
Though, when Jun turns to him again, to lean up on his elbows to urgently press the cold flask into Sho’s hands, a plea in his eyes, Sho notices the patches of red on Jun’s ears, around his neck, and he smiles smugly. So Jun is not as trained as Sho would initially have thought.  
Sho tilts his head at Jun, wondering how many times someone has had this man. There cannot be much time when one is at sea. Unless, of course, one’s lover decides to join in on the journey.  
“Shut up.” Jun just says then, turning away with a cute redness to his cheeks.  
A redness Sho reaches for and kisses away, slowly, comforting while his fingers work on removing the cork stopper, listening to the quiet squeaky noise and Jun’s satisfied sighs in Sho’s mouth.  
As soon as he gets the bottle opened, he turns it to pour plenty of the cold, oily liquid onto his fingers, making sure they are greasy and covered before he moves down to circle them around Jun’s hole, massaging the tight ring of muscle.  
Now Jun is the one to wiggle in the sheets while Sho changes between kissing the discomfort away from his face, and watching him for signs of hurt as he lets the first digit poke its way in, experimenting.  
And Sho cannot help but groan at how tight Jun is, how he clenches around the first joint of Sho’s finger.  
“Sho,” Jun whispers, breaking away from their kiss to let himself fall back on the mattress, staring at Sho with heavy-lidded eyes and parted lips, “Fuck me.”  
The demand is enough to make Sho’s cock jump, but he does not want to hurt Jun, and thus he will make sure to take his time, slowly pushing his finger further in before he starts poking around, fingering Jun’s entrance.  
Using his arm to support his weight beside Jun’s head, Sho moves to hover over Jun’s lithe body, situated between Jun’s legs and then he forces in the second finger, instantly leaning down to kiss Jun’s furrowing brow at the intrusion. Sho hums against his skin when Jun mewls.  
Then Jun places a hand on Sho’s shoulder, letting his nails dig into the muscle there, simultaneously with his hips surging forward to urge Sho on. Silently begging for Sho to speed up.  
Realising this spoiled side of Jun, Sho only wants to frustrate him even more, to hear him beg for it again and again, and he chuckles when he breaks away to pour even more oil over his fingers, making sure he shoots Jun a challenging look when the liquid makes lewd sounds around his digits.  
When he inserts them again, he obligingly opts to be a bit harsher, starting to scissor and open Jun up, dragging his fingers against the inner walls.  
Jun moans now, muffling the sound by leaning up to bite Sho’s neck, albeit half-heartedly in his arousal. His breath is hot as he pants, and thus Sho turns his head to kiss his hair,  
“Breathe. Relax.” He tells Jun, letting the man collapse back into the sheets.  
Sho watches with wonder as Jun buries his face in the pillow, coming apart and begging quietly for Sho to speed up.  
Not until Sho is satisfied, does he insert the third digit, watching on as Jun cries out and tries his best to control his breathing. Sho wants to help him along, so he moves down to kiss along his exposed neck and his collarbones, to distract him from the stretching and burning Sho is causing him.  
While Sho tastes Jun’s skin, Sho’s name becomes a whispery chant falling over Jun’s lips again and again, and when Jun angles his hips upwards, bringing Sho’s fingers deeper, Sho knows he is close to being ready.  
He then starts searching for that particular spot, changing between scissoring Jun’s hole and moving around experimentally, while in his periphery, Sho can see how Jun’s cock looks painfully hard, white liquid having smeared on Jun’s abdomen.  
Then Jun suddenly gasps, a hitched yell silenced against the back of Jun’s hand, the pirate trying to save some dignity, and Sho knows he has found it. So he smiles, his own breathing laboured since he wants nothing but to fuck into the inviting heat between Jun’s legs as fast as possible, knowing how the anticipation only builds the longer he drags this out.  
He places a parting kiss against the beauty mark on Jun’s nipple before he removes his fingers, ignoring Jun’s whine as he occupies himself with preparing his cock, stroking it slowly to slicken it up properly. When he catches Jun’s eyes, he slows down, taking pleasure in the way Jun moans at the sight of Sho stroking himself, the sounds heavy in his ears.  
“Please,” now Jun is the one to beg, “Please, come _on._ ”  
Sho moves back to cover Jun’s body with his own, one hand guiding his cock towards Jun’s entrance, letting the head teasingly poke the opening, and Jun’s back arches,  
“What do you want?”  
Jun moans again, wanton and desperate, but Sho wants him to say it once more as he licks the shell of Jun’s ear, breathing hot air against the sensitive skin, “Tell me, Jun. Say it.”  
Suddenly, Sho feels Jun’s leg wrapping itself around his lower back, a heel digging against his spine. Jun’s brown eyes burn, when he growls out his demand “Fuck me, Sho. Fuck me.”  
Finally, Sho thrusts forward against Jun’s shaking walls, slowly, but with purpose, going in halfway with the first push, his lips caressing softly across Jun’s jaw, pressing a soft nibble on the side of his mouth.  
Jun is panting, trying his best to relax, and Sho rewards him by rocking forward again, stopping once he is fully sheathed inside Jun.  
It is difficult to stop and let Jun adjust to his size when he feels so tight around Sho, so hot, his walls sucking around Sho’s cock.  
Sho groans and Jun wraps his other leg around him, pulls him slightly inwards, though not without gasping quietly, trying to hide the sound by biting his lip.  
“Easy. Don’t be too impatient,” Sho whispers against his lips, swallowing with difficulty.  
Jun feels so good, and it takes all of Sho’s control to wait. He occupies them both by stroking Jun’s sides affectionately, moving over Jun’s backside, his thighs and the back of his knees, taking his time to appreciate the softness of Jun’s skin, the firmness of his limbs.  
Jun turns his head to kiss the side of Sho’s neck, “You are so proper,” he whispers, his following chuckle breathy, “You can be a little rough you know.”  
“I don’t want to hurt you.”  
Another chuckle, this time tickling Sho’s ear, “I want to _feel_ Sho, I want it to burn a little when you fuck into me.”  
Despite Sho’s reluctance to see pain in Jun’s eyes, the request still does things to him, and because of it, he kisses Jun with a growl and he starts moving, mirroring the thrusts with his tongue, affectively silencing the first few whimpers from Jun.  
First, Jun’s body fights against the intrusion, but when it starts to get easier to move, Sho speeds up, urged on by the way Jun claws at his back, pressing himself as close to Sho as possible, small cute moans now emitted against Sho’s shoulder,  
“Sho-“ his name becomes a hitched moan when he moves around to change his angle, and when he trusts again, he is allowed deeper into Jun, pleasure causing shivers down his spine.  
There will be red scratching marks on his back come morning, but Sho only likes the thought of that, those small pangs of pain accommodating the perfect feeling of Jun around him, the feeling of accomplishment of finally being exactly where he wants to be.  
Jun is writhing underneath him, arching up and starting to move his hips in a rhythm against Sho. He is biting his bottom lip hard to keep most of his sounds contained, which Sho puts a stop to by pressing his thumb against it, forcing the tip into Jun’s mouth to push downwards against his teeth and open it. And instantly, those delicious, delirious sounds fill the room,  
“Moan for me, Jun.”  
He wants all the other pirates on the ship to know that _he_ is the one to fuck their captain. Briefly, Sho’s thoughts drift to Jun’s first mate, and he cannot help but feel smug, self-congratulatory when he imagines the look on that perfectly cold man’s face when he hears about this.  
That wish has Sho make a particularly hard thrust, sending the headboard of Jun’s bed banging against the wall, the mattress squeaking slightly beneath them and Jun throws his head back with a whine, baring his long neck to Sho.  
Now Sho is the one to utter Jun’s name, upping his pace and listening to the obscene sound of his hips against Jun’s ass as he licks a long line over Jun’s Adam’s Apple, bobbing when he teasingly bites into it. The desire to possess and wreck grows in him as Sho grabs a hold of the back of Jun’s thighs, forcing them out of their hold around him to move them further upwards at the same time as he leans forward, the action bringing his cock deeper.  
He watches when Jun’s eyes roll to the back of his skull, unfathomable pleasure marring his strong features, and Sho can feel the clenching feeling in his gut building, knowing that he is getting closer along with Jun underneath him.  
“Harder,” Jun begs, fighting to send Sho a demanding stare, and it is almost cute how he tries so hard to be commanding, considering the state he is in.  
Sho snaps his hips forward,  
“Fuck, yes- Sho, _harder_.”  
Just like he does on deck, Jun makes it increasingly harder for Sho to control himself, to keep his cool, and with every thrust into Jun, every snap of his hips, Sho loses the strength to hold back, every time hitting harder, fulfilling Jun’s request.  
The headboard is now making a constant chant of banging, mixing with Sho’s deep groans and Jun’s moans of his name, no longer prevented in any way of escaping.  
And just as Jun looks as if he will fall, just as the veins on his neck pop and his hold on Sho’s shoulders tightens, Sho pulls out – does so with an insane surge of will – and Jun shouts in confusion and shock, eyes springing open, the protest ready on his lips.  
But then Sho grabs his arm and turns him around to shove him to his stomach, his disapproval muffled against his silk pillows. Quickly crawling over him, Sho tauntingly presses his front against Jun’s back, letting Jun feel the tip of his cock against the back of his thighs.  
Jun gasps again, this time realising what Sho is doing, and he lifts himself up on his hands and knees with difficulty, gaining his balance just in time for Sho to push into that slick heat again, one hand instantly grabbing hold of Jun’s hip to pull him back against Sho’s cock as he continues fucking him.  
With his other hand, Sho strokes Jun’s long back, fingers his spine and his heady skin, for just a few seconds before he lets that hand too, join the other, and then he pounds into Jun, faster and faster, taking and taking while Jun does his best to breathe, words difficult for him even as he just whimpers Sho’s name, while he tries to buck back and meet Sho’s rapid thrusts.  
Sho still has not touched Jun’s straining cock, but there is no need to; Sho can feel how Jun shivers underneath him, sees how the muscles of his thighs tense up, and Sho almost has him, and he wants to do one last thing, to ensure that when Jun falls off the edge, he falls hard.  
The wish to have Jun feel slightly claustrophobic and completely consumed has Sho grabbing hold of Jun’s knees, pushing them forward for Jun to end up flattening down against the mattress, and Sho can push deeper again, Jun feeling it with a yell and a jolt upwards as he fights Sho’s weight now leaning against his back.  
Sho chuckles in his ear, snaps his hips upwards roughly,  
“I wonder what your crew is gonna say, when they find out,” Sho’s words have the desired effect when Jun moans, “How do you suggest I tell Matsuda-san? ‘Last night, I – a government official – fucked your captain so hard he screamed.’”  
Then, Sho grabs onto one of Jun’s ass cheeks, spreading it and slamming back into him,  
“Cry for me, Jun. I want you to _scream_ my name.”  
Arms quaking, hips bucking, Jun forces his eyes shut, breath hitching, and then he comes undone by a brutal thrust, dirtying his sheets and his stomach, and while his walls clench furiously around Sho, Sho pulls Jun back up and against him, thrusting mindlessly through Jun’s orgasm until he feels it himself, the wave hitting him hard and he releases inside Jun.  
He slows down and thrusts shallowly to ride out his orgasm, until he pulls out, taking Jun with him as they collapse on the bed.  
Movement beside him has Sho turning his head despite his exhaustion, panting as he tries to regain his breath. But a smile cannot be kept from his face when he feels how Jun’s warmth snuggles up to him, the pirate nosing his neck.  
“Who knew,” Jun says, still out of breath, “That a previous navy man could be so damn rough in bed.”  
Satisfaction and bliss softens Jun’s words, and he has started drawing random patterns across Sho’s sweaty chest.  
“Who knew a pirate captain could be such a loud bottom.”  
Jun emits a miffed sound, nose scrunching up in displeasure,  
“You asked for it,” Sho just continues, but shows his contentment by wrapping his arm around Jun’s middle, pulling him closer, “Don’t you dare ask anyone else now.”  
When Jun looks up at him at Sho’s possessive demand, he narrows his eyes,  
“You do know there are conditions for that right? I cannot just fulfil your request without making demands of my own.”  
The daring pirate is back, and Sho smirks, knowing exactly what he means. He wets his lips,  
“I was here when you came back, wasn’t I?”  
“You were.”  
“Then what? What more do you want?”  
Sho thought Jun only wanted him to join his crew, to turn his back on the government of Japan, to stay on Remarkable despite it all. He reckons Jun’s plan is for him to remain underground, for him to remain dead in Japan’s heart, remain dead and gone to his family. To be someone else, someone who does not exist in the records. It would give Jun a great advantage to have a man on board that people thought to be dead. Sho will be no one until he makes a new name for himself.  
A kiss is planted against Sho’s chest as Jun ponders on what to say. There is a speck of fear to be detected in the hard set of his mouth, and Sho wants to take that insecurity away so badly.  
“I need someone to help me navigate. That was the initial plan when I brought you on board.”  
Despite what they just did and despite his confidence on deck, when it comes to Sho, Jun is still somewhat unsure, it seems. And though it does sadden Sho, he understands.  
The two of them have still only come halfway.  
Sho runs his hand across Jun’s brow, removes his bangs and lets his fingers slide down the side of Jun’s face in an affectionate gesture.  
Maybe Jun took his Daylight away, maybe Jun sunk his future and his crew, his family and his inheritance. But he gave Sho something else. He gave him freedom. Something Sho was not even aware he wanted until he got a taste of it,  
“Jun- no, Captain Matsumoto,” Sho says, and his ironic seriousness makes Jun raise his head a little from where it rests on Sho’s chest, “I _refuse_ to wear an eyepatch, and I am not sure I want to be called a pirate just yet but. The job as your pilot, I can quite easily accept.”  
The relief and joy makes Jun’s face split into a smile Sho sees for the first time, one that makes his eyes become like two half-moons, complementing the dotted constellations Sho has found across his face and body. He is breath taking, and when he kisses Sho insistently, to make sure Sho _feels_ how happy this agreement makes him, he presses his big, soft lips against Sho’s again and again, in an unspoken thankfulness, that Sho will perhaps later come to understand and see more of.  
He wants to.  
Jun may have taken his ship away, his thoroughly planned future, but like this, Sho reckons he does not need Daylight – he would rather be forever here, beside Jun, in the dark, admiring the night and its sea of stars.

 _“Only the Devil and I know the whereabouts of my treasure, and the one of us who lives the longest should take it all.”_  
_\- Edward “Blackbeard” Teach_


End file.
